- Director: Steve Miner
- Writers: David E. Kelley
- Stars: Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson, and Betty White
- Runtime: 82 minutes
- YouTube Trailer Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8ZhNB8ppJE
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s a giant creature feature, set in a beautiful location. There’s a lot of violence and gore, but also a lot of dark humor – it’s not quite in the comedy genre, but there are a lot of chuckles to be had. The casting is excellent and added a lot to making the movie more watchable and entertaining. It was a fun watch.
Spoilery Synopsis
As credits roll, we see scenes of a very placid lake. The sheriff and a diver are out tagging beavers. The diver goes down and funds an underwater tunnel and checks it out. Turns out, it’s not a beaver nest. The sheriff, aboard the boat, pulls up about half of the diver.
In New York City, Kelly explains to Myra that her boyfriend has dumped her; Myra already knows because she stole Kevin from her.
Near Lake Placid, Sheriff Hank welcomes Jack Wells, with Fish & Game, to investigate the animal attack. Kevin comes in and talks about a probable-bear attack and wants to send Kelly to Maine to investigate a tooth they found in the diver. She’s not really gung-ho about field work, but has no choice but to investigate.
Kelly, Jack, and Hank go out to the lake and talk to an old woman who is the only person who lives directly on the lake. Mrs. Bickerman says her husband died two years ago from an assisted suicide. Kelly, in the meantime, does not enjoy the natural beauty of the place. “I have good hygiene; I’m not welcome here.”
Hector Cyr, a rich mythology nut, shows up in a helicopter. He’s obsessed with crocodiles, so that’s weird. There shouldn’t be any crocodiles in this lake, but he’s pretty confident. They go out in canoes, and something knocks over one of the boats. They also find the diver’s toe.
Hector’s a party animal, and sets up quite a campsite. Hank doesn’t like him at all.
The next day, they use all their equipment as Hector and Jack go diving for the creature. Meanwhile, the monster attacks the boat with Kelly and Hank. They’re fine, but the deputy, on the other hand, loses his head. Hector gives a ridiculous speech about dreaming he’d lost his head.
Suddenly, a huge bear attacks! That goes nowhere because even more suddenly, a giant crocodile leaps out of the water and eats the bear– whole. Finally, Kelly decides she’s having a good time.
In the morning, they all go croc-hunting. They find another severed head just on the edge of Mrs. Bickerman’s place. They watch as the old woman leads a cow to the beach and feeds it to the enormous crocodile.
Mrs. Bickerman admits she’s been feeding the thing for six years; it’s a sort of pet. It was what killed her husband. Meanwhile, Hector goes swimming again and comes face to face with the big croc. The crocodile lets him get onto the helicopter, but then tries to eat that.
Hector wants to sedate and capture the crocodile. He doesn’t want it killed, which Fish & Game will do. He’s persuasive. They use one of Mrs. Bickerman’s cows, dangling from a helicopter, as bait. Eventually, the croc takes the bait and crashes the helicopter. It comes up on land and menaces everyone. The crocodile manages to get stuck inside the helicopter and can’t get out. They tranquilize it, so it’s all good. Suddenly, a second crocodile shows up, and Hank gets to shoot that one explosively.
As things wind down, Hank and Hector drive off to the hospital. Kelly and Jack get together.
Some time passes and we see Mrs. Bickerman, out at the dock, feeding a new batch of baby crocodiles…
Brian’s Commentary
The interplay between Hank and Hector is comedy gold. Actually, this movie is only good because of the stellar cast. The croc is a combination of CGI and practical effects, but it’s all very effective.
It’s a great mix of giant-animal horror and comedy. It was successful and then led to a whole batch of sequels.
Kevin’s Commentary
I agree with Brian, it was casting done right that added a lot to the movie. It could have been a lot lamer than it was. Okay, it wasn’t that lame, it was pretty entertaining. And the humor helped a lot.
The croc is a practical effect – a giant puppet – in many of its scenes, which was much better than having it be purely CGI. Though the CGI is quite good too. Trivia says the croc actually has less than four minutes of screen time.
Somehow, I had missed seeing this before now. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
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