Here we have another one of those nature gone crazy type films with Lake Placid. The film is written by David E. Kelley who is known more for his TV writing with L.A. Law, Chicago Hope, and The Practice on his resume. Steve Miner directs who is also known for his directing Friday the 13th chapters 2 and 3 as well as Halloween H2O. So he's on both Jason and Michael's family trees. The film takes place in Maine at a lake named Black Lake but it's nicknamed Lake Placid due to how smooth the lake is. Lake Placid is a real lake Black Lake isn't. Starring is Bill Pullman (Independence Day and Lost Highway) as a game warden who along with a paleontologist Bridget Fonda (Jackie Brown and Singles) investigate an animal attack that turns out to be a thirty foot long crocodile. Brendon Gleeson (In Bruges and 28 Days Later) is the town sheriff and Oliver Platt (Chef and 2012) plays Hector, a crocodile enthusiast nutjob. That rounds out the group that look for the Killer Kroc.
The person that steals the movie however is the foul mouthed Delores Bickerman played by the one, the only, Betty White. Delores has been feeding the crocodile for years. We see her going as far as leading a blindfolded cow down to the lake to feed to the crocodile. Florida fish and wildlife is on their way to kill the beast but Oliver Platt wants to capture it so it can be studied. The film is the first in a long line of Lake Placid killer crocodile films. I originally saw this years ago when many years ago it made it's first tour of the pay channels on cable either HBO or Showtime or one of the other ones but other than Betty White and her salty language, I remembered nothing about it. I haven't seen any of the other installments of the franchise but I did see Anaconda Vs. Lake Placid which is the crocodile facing off against a monstrous anaconda. Shortly after seeing that I saw this listed and decided to give it a watch if for no other reason than for the best golden girl ever.
The film looks nice, the lakes in British Colombia that they used to fill in for a lake in Maine are really gorgeous and I will put them on my list of places to see. Probably nice around this time of year as well. A little Indian Summer on a Canadian lake, eh? Sounds good, leave out the blood thirsty crocodile part and we got a deal. The acting all serves it's purpose although nobody really stands out to me. I guess Platt plays a good enough irritating dork but there's really nothing to write home about here. Maybe Kelley needs to stick to doctor or courtroom dramas on TV because he does do that well but as far as the story that goes with this one I wasn't engaged. I didn't particularly care about any of the characters. A positive to take away from this one is it's only an hour and twenty minutes so you won't be bored for long but you probably will be bored. I have to say when it comes to giant crocodiles on a rampage movie I'll take Rogue over this any day. Two tranquilizer darts out of five for this as I just wanted the beast to kill everybody (except for Betty White) so we could just be done with it.
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