An enormous crocodile starts causing trouble near a small town in Maine in the creature feature Lake Placid.
This is a B-movie premise through and through, and in some respects that works in the film's favour when it leans into that. There is a lot of dumb fun to be had here, but it's missing a few elements that would make me truly enjoy it.
Thankfully, the cast is game for the material and know exactly what sort of film they're in. Brendan Gleeson as an irate Sheriff and Olivier Platt as a full of himself mythology professor are appropriately campy, whilst Bridget Fonda and Bill Pullman put in more straightforward performances alongside them. They make a dysfunctional team trying to catch the crocodile, but unfortunately their arguments get irksome after a while, and the humour is hit or miss for the most part in their interactions. A foul-mouthed Betty White in a small supporting role does gather some laughs though.
For other positives there are some delightfully effective moments of gore, and the animatronic crocodile, brought to life by special make-up effects creator Steve Winston, is very convincing. However, the CGI used has aged poorly and is noticeably bad compared to the accomplished animatronic work.
Another slight grievance I have is that there is actually very little we see of the creature. I'm all for restraint in cases like these, but it has just under four minutes of screen time it what is a very short film at 82 minutes including credits.
Speaking of the runtime it's good in the fact that it doesn't outstay its welcome, but it does demonstrate how little story there really is and I do get the feeling that the material is stretched out a little. A fairly repetitive structure of an incident on the lake followed by arguments on land followed by a further incident doesn't help.
Certain scenes could be seen as unnecessary because of that, particularly a few scenes where there's some hints of romance developed between Fonda's and Pullman's characters which doesn't contribute to the plot in any meaningful way.
Final Verdict
Whilst I definitely see this as being enjoyable for most people as just a film with a lot of dumb fun to be had, it's a shame it doesn't really do a lot for me. It's something I would still recommending you checking out if you're looking for something quick and simple to watch.
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