Movie Review - Lake Placid 2

Lake Placid 2

2007

The Cast

Oh, My GOD!!!

How to take a dump on a decent film.  After the successfulness of the first flick it was inevitable a sequel would rear its ugly head... and boy is it ugly.

I originally watched this on its DVD release, though I must have forced myself to forget how bad the story and film really are.  I can't even say which is the worst as just about everything about this stinks, like a swamp in summer.  The story is pretty lame and even though there were officials on the scene in the original, for some reason those events appear to have been covered up as everybody believes it was an urban myth.  Even when they are presented with the facts they don't want to believe.  

Then there's the acting which is dire to say the best.  Though I've never rated John Schneider (Sheriff Riley) to be a great actor I did believe he was better than in this movie.  I'm not sure if Flores was going for camp characters or not, but he failed if he was.  The worst accent award goes to Sam McMurray (Struthers) his Irish Lilt was cringeworthy.  Even the likes of Cloris Leachman (Sadie Bickerman) couldn't lift this out of the silt at the bottom of the lake.  To be honest, it was the supporting cast that were probably the best actors in the whole thing.

Though I have to say, it could have been the director's fault for the characterisations, as he does call the shots.  Take the teenage rebels.  If they were wrote this unrealistically by Hurvitz and Miller it should have been Flores duty to make them more believable.  He failed.  These are basically your standard stereotypical bad-boys.  Though I wasn't sure if this was supposed to be a parody of the genre and a joke in itself.  Since the rest of the film is rubbish it's hard to differentiate.

Then there's the CGI.  Okay, so this was back in 2007 but it's still no excuse for some of the animation.  There's a lot of no thought gone into the making of this film and most are in the CGI scenes.  There are way too many scenes where the "dinner" is in shallow water but somehow the giant crocodile swims up out of the deep...  These crocs are also adept at pulling their prey from the shore or jetty.  Not sure how they do it... maybe their tongues have evolved into something similar to frogs...

This is a bad film... and I usually love bad films.  However, this has nothing good to recommend it to anyone.  If you've watched the first Lake Placid, then I would advise you to watch that one again.  Even if it's the hundredth viewing, you'll  still get more enjoyment from that film than this.

I give this sequel a Crocodile Kiss of 2.75 out of 10. 

The Trailer

Movie Review - Lake Placid

Lake Placid

(1999)

Fox 2000 Pictures / Phoenix Pictures / Rocking Chair Productions : Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

8 / 10

Now, this is a monster movie for the twenty-first century.  A good romp through the bizarreness of science fiction.  In the fifties, it was the fear of radiation; now, it's mother nature.

There's no explanation of the killer croc being where it is, though all the experts say it shouldn't be there.  Be we don't need to know why it's in the lake, all we are worried about is the gory fun that will ensue because it is.

The strange thing about the film is that it's not really about the two lead roles.  I think this is down to the writers developing better roles in the Hecter Cyr played flamboyantly by Oliver Platt and Sheriff Hank Keough spiritedly portrayed by Brenden Gleeson and the repartee they have between them.  Then when Betty White come on the scene as Mrs Delores Bickerman, the croc's mother, she steals the show.  Which is a shame for Bill Pullman and Bridget Fonda as they look adrift next to the minor roles.

The director, Steve Minor does an expert job of building up the pace and keeping the excitement and humour rolling along at an increasing pace.

For the most part, the special effects are superb some of the hardest things to do are to create fur on animals and get their movements correct the digital artists did really good work here, and it was 1999.  Stan Winston and his studios looked after the hard effects and the puppet crocodile, which is amazing in its lifelike quality.

If you're looking for good fun that you don't need to think about just enjoy then I'd recommend this movie to you.  There are laughs, there's action, there are man-eating crocodiles... what more could you ask for... Oh Yeah, there's Betty White... nuff said!