Crocodile

Sheriff: "I guess we better go back to the station and get the guns."
Shurkin: "Biggest ones you got."

release year: 2000
genre: giant crocodile mayhem
viewing setting: home streaming 8/22/26 and home VHS 5/14/02

synopsis: A group of vacationing idiot kids encounter a gigantic, angry crocodile.

impressions: There's not much to it: someone destroys a bunch of the big crocodile's eggs, and so it goes on a bloody rampage. Some things that await you in this movie: over-the-top annoying characters...a giant croc...a redneck sheriff...a crusty old shark hunter...a poodle that won't die...a stated/perceived connection to ancient Egyptian myths...a haunted house...croc-egg football...the great party boat actually being little more than a small square cabin with a motor...the great party lake sometimes looking like a foot-deep mud pit...battering-ram croc...vomiting croc. It's not high art, but it's certainly entertaining, with a variety of characters and a fearsome monster and some humor thrown in - the exact formula for success in movies like this. Trivia: it was directed by Tobe Hooper, who had already tried the same thing with a lot less money and production values a quarter-century earlier.

body count: 10

acting: Caitlin Martin and Mark McLachlan do good jobs as the only likeable members of the group of friends. Chris Solari is the most obnoxious of the others, and makes the viewer want to see him get eaten. Sommer Knight is also memorable as the slutty one. Harrison Young is the crusty old sheriff, and Terrence Evans is the crusty old hunter who has a personal vendetta against the giant crocodile.

final word: Fairly decent giant monster movie, worth seeing.

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