Product Details

• Actors: Robert Forster
• Format: Color, NTSC, HiFi Sound
• Language: English
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Vestron
• VHS Release Date: September 18, 1991
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302036720
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #177,345 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "A VERY LARGE ALLIGATOR, WITH A VERY LARGE BITE"......, October 1, 2007

By 

Patrick Miller "SAUROPOD" (NEW YORK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alligator (DVD)

I remember in Brooklyn N.Y., hearing the commercial for Alligator on am radio in early 1980, and always wanted to see it, but I never got around to it, I finally saw it on tv in the mid 1980s. I must say I wasn't dissapointed in the mid 1980s and I'm not dissapointed with this 2007 dvd rerelease. Great pristine film transfer. Nice dolby 5.1 sound, make Alligator sound in a whole different way on a theatre system. Alligator came out in 1980, during this time the Age Of Gore 1978-1983 was in full swing, so Alligator was one of the gore gems to come out during this Age Of Gore. Alligator was based on urban legend about alligators in the sewar. The year is 1968, and a pet alligator named Ramone gets flushed down the toilet by an angry father. Twelve years later in 1980, this gator has grown to a prehistoric sized 36 foot. Thanks to the gators diet of discarded lab steroid tested animal experiments, it has grown to this enormous size. Alligator writers John Saylesand Frank Perilli and director Lewis Teague makes the viewer aware of the sociol status and economics in society. ex: As you watch this gator wreck havoc through the movie, Ramone( the Gator) starts its havoc in the impoverished neighborhoods and finally action is taken when the gator becomes a problem for the upper class. Robert Forster plays a believable detective David Madison, say what you want about this movie, but Forsters part was played incredibly well. Forsters charachter Detective David Madison was likable, calm collective guy, or a guy who would steal every cent you have. Robert Forster made you believe he was this charachter. Robin Ryker plays a a belivable herpetologists Dr. Marissa Kendall and an attractive love interest for detective Dave Madison. Apearences by Actors Henry Silva and old time western screen legend Dean Jagger added some interesting charachters to Alligator. One charachter that really brought life to this move was Herpetologists Dr. Marissa Kendalls mother Madeline, actress Patti Jerome. Madeline was a fun interesting charachter that may have annoyed you but your interest was kept, watching actress Patti Jeromes great performance. Great production on the soundtrack by composer Craig Hundly. I thought the soundtrack was great for this kind of movie. A facinating interview with Director Lewis Teague opened new light on this B- film, which I'm happy Lionsgate finally released this cult classic. Alligator is good trashy B-film fun, that I enjoy every time I watch. And you will to. If you like movies like Humanoids From the Deep, or Piranha you will enjoy Alligator.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flick Has Some Bite To It, October 13, 2007

By 

David Baldwin (Philadelphia,PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Alligator (DVD)

This flick is a potpourri of great trivia. Star Robert Forster made his mark in "Medium Cool" only to slip into B-movie abyss before being resurrected(and Oscar nominated) by Quentin Tarantino in "Jackie Brown". Co-star Robin Riker would later play Chris Elliott's nemesis in the cult sitcom "Get A Life". The film's perfunctory heavy, Dean Jagger, won an Oscar for "Twelve O'Clock High". Oscar nominee for "Godfather II", Michael V. Gazzo is also on hand here. Sidney Lassick who plays the diabolical pet store owner was in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". John Ford regular Mike Mazurki has a bit as a security guard. Sue Lyon, the original Lolita, has a bit as a TV reporter. As for John Sayles' script it's intelligent but it's not as witty as it want's to be. There are too many obvious gags like a decapitated sewer worker named Ed Norton or a hospital intercom paging a Dr. Howard. What I felt distinguished the film was Lewis Teague's direction. Teague really knows how to ratchet the scares and suspense. The alligator looked realistically menacing and that compensates for a lot of the flat tongue-in-cheek qualities of the film. On a final note, when are they going to release Teague's shot-in-Philly vigilante flick "Fighting Back" with Tom Skerritt and Michael Sarrazin on DVD?

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good, little known film, October 28, 2002

By 

JLind555 - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Alligator [VHS] (1980) (VHS Tape)

"Alligator" is a very good little B movie that deserves a much wider audience than it has to date. I don't even remember it being commercially released; I've caught it several times on late night TV. But it's a tight, fast-paced, unpretentious film, generally well acted and with a few nifty surprises. At the start of the movie, a little girl buys a baby alligator from an old Seminole Indian in Florida. Dad isn't thrilled to have a baby gator in the house, and in a fit of pique one afternoon he flushes it down the toilet. Down goes the gator into the town's sewer system, which coincidentally is chock full of dead pets, mostly kidnapped cats and dogs, which a villainous vet has been injecting growth hormones into before dumping them into the sewer. Fast-forward 12 years later; the baby gator, still in the sewer after chowing down on animal cadavers bloated with growth hormones for the past dozen years, has grown into a behemoth with a ravenous appetite and an indiscriminate taste for anything it can chomp on, including humans. Yuck... body parts start turning up in the city's sewage system, including a couple of sewer workers, a newspaper reporter, and a policeman who went down into the sewer to investigate the shenanigans. His erstwhile partner, nicely played by Robert Forster, and a young biologist (who else but the little girl now grown up?) team up to try to find out what's going on. But the alligator is getting kind of bored stuck in the sewer, and one hot night it blasts itself through a concrete sidewalk in the middle of a stickball game, and the chase is on as the gator turns up in dark alleys, a swimming pool, and the town lake, before indecorously crashing the villainous vet's wedding reception and chomping on the guests. The movie jolts along to a suitably explosive ending and it's great fun from beginning to end. "Alligator" spawned an absolutely dreadful sequel which has nothing to do with the original; the people who made the first "Alligator" knew better than to mess with a good thing. It's a very good, modest, low-budget film that proves again that sometimes small is best after all.