Customer Reviews

Crocodile [VHS]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I can't say for certain whether Tobe Hooper's film "Crocodile" was the one to kick off the spate of low budget beastie flicks currently plaguing video store shelves. It might have been the one, though, since Hooper's activities have been known to attract copycats. Perhaps this director is simply ripping off his own work, as he was the one who made the atrocious "Eaten Alive" back in the late 1970s. That film involved a killer crocodile (or was it an alligator?) wreaking havoc in the bayous of Louisiana. Well, "Crocodile" is a much, much better film than "Eaten Alive," but it isn't anything to brag about to your friends. It's sort of sad that Hooper's film career has had more downs than ups. "Crocodile" will probably not rescuitate his flagging career. While the movie is often fun to watch, we need to be honest with ourselves and admit that we have seen this all before. Aside from "Eaten Alive," the 1970s and early 1980s saw a huge number of similarly themed films. You had alligators roaming through sewers, piranhas preying on swimmers, and sharks shutting down beaches. I'm guessing these movies have something to do with the human need to believe in civilization. By conquering whatever nature can throw at it, humanity proves its own inestimable worth and confirms its position as ruler of the earth.

Before we can believe we are truly superior, we must make the requisite number of sacrifices to nature. In the case of "Crocodile," that means a bunch of college age kids heading out to a lake for a few days of summer fun. You've got Brady (Mark McLachlan), Claire (Caitlin Martin), Duncan (Chris Solari), Kit (D.W. Reiser), Annabelle (Julie Mertz), Sunny (Sommer Knight), Foster (Rhett Jordan), and Hubs (Greg Wayne) serving as the soon to be victims. The lead up to the massacre involves the mandatory relationship problems, overweening egos, and general bad behavior one expects from America's youth. For example, Claire is a nice girl just hoping to share a few precious moments with her lovebird Brady, but finds it difficult to hang out with him when his obnoxious friends show up. Too, Sunny has designs on Brady; designs that she hoped would find fulfillment on the trip before she knew Claire was coming along. Of course, Sunny and Brady have a little secret of their own that could cause serious problems for Claire. Yet, it is easy to forget such trivialities when the sun comes out, the water turns warm, and the alcohol flows like a river.

Unbeknownst to our eight happy campers, something horrible lurks in the deep waters of the lake. Two insufferable fishermen first encounter this beast when they stumble over a nest of crocodile eggs on the shoreline. Being the ecologically minded souls that they are, the two yucks start throwing the eggs around, breaking the shells while they laugh maniacally. Sadly for the fishermen the mother croc turns up at an inopportune time, making her presence known in no uncertain terms by gulping up one of the fools in a single bite. The kids, camping some distance away, here the calamity but think nothing of it at first. They do find the nest the next day, and once again humans start mucking around with the croc's potential offspring. One of the kids hides an egg in Claire's bag, much to her chagrin later. Soon after, the crocodile finally makes herself known to the youths by destroying their houseboat and chasing them overland for miles. Shrieks, the beating of chests, and the tearing of hair follow all to no avail. The beast turns out to be the size of a blimp with the ability to run at mach speeds. Our heroes and heroines begin to drop off one by one, overwhelmed by the brute force of nature run amok. To explain the presence of this creature, some bunkum story emerges that a local resident brought giant crocodiles over from Egypt years before, but the kids don't really care about that once the bloodletting begins. They just want to get away with their lives. Some will, of course, but more won't. "Crocodile" is so formulaic that we can guess from the get go how it will wrap up.

The general plot is rather pedestrian. The acting is, too, although it could be worse-and often is-in a film from this sub genre. The worst actor in the production has to be Sheriff Bowman (Harrison Young), the local cop who initially harasses the kids and then tries to save them. His leering, hammy performance didn't help the movie in any way. What really sets Hooper's movie apart from all the other efforts of the '70s and '80s are the special effects. Depicting an enormous crocodile with the ability to destroy civilization has to have shock and awe production values, so the filmmakers turned to CGI effects to realize their creation. A computer animated crocodile works most of the time, but occasionally looks a little cheesy. For instance, when the animal leaps over a boat sailing across the lake the effect looked like a computer animation. The techs did a better job when the crocodile attacks people. Pay attention to the scenes on the dock and on the boat. Good grief!

The "Crocodile" disc include a few trailers, a behind the scenes look at the special effects, interviews, and a commentary track with Tobe Hooper. I should say that the problems with "Crocodile" pale in comparison with the inherent difficulties found in low budget dreck like the "Shark Attack" films. Here's to hoping Tobe Hooper can revitalize his flagging career; he will have to do better than this movie, but it's a step in the right direction. Give it a watch.

I can enjoy a bad movie if it is funny, creative, or at least entertaining. "Crocodile" is one of those movies, even if it is not very good.

Two main problems:

1) The characthers are hard to tolerate. You even root for the crocodile. Really. They are childish, obnoxious and plain stupid.

2) The movie steals from everywhere. It starts with a comparison between sex and pizza, taken from "Threesome". Horror scenes that seems to be taken from "Night of the Living Dead", "Anaconda" and other are probably to "honor those monster flicks" (yeah, right).

But there are some nice scares, and the last scenes are so foolish that you have to laugh in an enjoyable way. At least the movie keeps you entertained and it even surprises you.

By the way, regarding other reviewers that complains that the movie is cheap (an usual comment on "B-movies"), please remember that the best horror flicks ("Night of Living Dead", "Halloween", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", other) were very cheap. I am not comparing "Crocodile" against these classics, but it shows that is not the money and technology what counts.

A group of teenagers plan a fun filled Spring Break on a house boat. One day the group stumble upon a load of crocodile eggs (most of them smashed already). Goofing around they break one and steal another. The next day they wake up and realise that the boat managed to drift away and none of them have any clue where the hell they are. That's not their only problem, for the mother(named Flat Dog) is extramly mad and wants revenge. After reviewing Blood Surf I remembered that I hadn't reviews Crocodile, so here it is. I highly enjoyed this flick and seriously think it should of gone to the cinema so it's ten times better then a few movies that have gone to the cinema, it's got quite alot of scares, I can't count the amount of times I jumped out of my seat. The movie has some cool gore and a nice script and is helped by some likable charicters. This is a great started for all the young actors in this movie, each one of them look to be having a blast in their roles and do a superb job as well. I still can't believe I didn't get a chance to see this on the big screen it's so good. I found myself into this movie very quickly it was truly a brilliant movie, I have my DVD ordered. I highly recommend this movie to any one of you (but there is a little bit of cheese, Croc pushing a car into the water to distroy the evadence anyone??) but who cares, it's to damn entertaining.

Most of you out there know the famous Tobe Hooper directed this. Most of his movies are now clasics and this one should be treated the same!Tobe rased the money for this film by him self and put alot of hard work into it. Don't think that you're buying a low budget film with bad actors and a crappy script because you're not. You're buying a low budget film with great acting and an awesom script! It's about a group of 6 teens on spring break being stalked by a 30 foot mother croc because they took her last egg. One by one each teen is devoured until the final three have to find a way to stop the croc before it's too late. If you are a fan of Tobe Hooper you will love it.

CROCODILE was a great horror flick. its about a group of college kids on spring break going on a boating trip on a river in louisiana. they begin the trip going along and having fun until the mess with the crocs nest and ruin the eggs and steal 1 of them. the croc is infuriated and goes after the kids and starts killin em 1 by 1. the film had some good humor in it and a lot of gore. this was a great movie and watching it is definietly worth your while

If you saw the original Texas Chainsaw Masscer and the Poltergist. You'll love this. This movie is a remake of the original Crocodile shout back in 1981. Some tennagers are coming to the lake to party. While exploring the shore and find a nest full of eggs which all but one is destroyed. One of the tennagers takes the egg. Little does he know he is being watch by a full grown 30 foot salt water crocodile. Who got pissed of. Some drunk fisherman disturb here nested. Smash the some of the eggs and threw some in the water where they sunk. The crocodile goes one a killing spree. Will the teens survive find out in the bonechilling conclusion.

I REALLY LIKED THIS MOVIE!! ITS THE BEST ANIMAL ATTACK MOVIE EVER!! It has lots of gore and action. I highly recomend this movie to everyone, even if they hate animal attack movies. Its when 8 collage friends take a vacation on a nice house boat and one friend steels a crocodile egg. WHen the mother croc (flat dog) sees this, she kills the friends one by one to get her baby back.In the end she gets her baby back. She ate 4 of the collage students and got 1 blown up. Tobe Hooper did a great job! I really think you should see this.

Just far too few of them. Certainly Tobe Hooper, after years of directing, can do more with a movie to bring it to life than what he did here. I guess not.

Obnoxious 'teen-agers' (some so callous and self-centered you beg for the croc to eat them so the earth will no longer be blighted with their presence) head out for a beer sodden weekend at a lakeside resort. Things take a turn for the worse when they mess with the eggs of a crocodile that's lurking about, one dofus puts an agg in the backpack of another character and momma croc wants it back. The rest of the movie is a fill in the blanks escape from the chasing monster story (at least one character ingested or simply killed during each subsequent attack until the 'battle royal' between the 'romantic leads' and their 'trustworthy comic relief sidekick'). Some of the attacks are a tad exciting, but you really won't care who lives or dies, and Hooper does nothing to inject anything original into the visible narrative. Obviously he didn't care, so why should we?

Tobe Hooper's newest movie comes in the wake of the recent animal attack films such as anaconda. A group of partying teens must survive a dangerous trek through some wet marshlands after their house is destroyed by a hungry croc seeking revenge for it's eggs that have been smashed. Some would say this is a ripoff from Lake Placid but this is much better. It has more suspense violence and a feeling of terror. I would suggest this film to anyone. It's good to see that Tobe Hooper can still make a good movie.

I know some people must think I'm nuts for rating a movie like this 5/5 Stars but I'm rating it according to the type of film it is -- a Grade B creature-on-the-loose flick. Anyone watching a film called "Crocodile" knows up front that it ain't no "Apocalypse Now." With this understanding, "Crocodile" (2000) is simply a blast.

THE STORY: A bunch of college kids go out to a scenic vacation spot on Spring Break to have some fun in the sun and encounter a giant crocodile.

To be expected in such a scenario the youths "party" and cuss a lot, so stay away if either offends you.

"Crocodile" was directed by Tobe Hooper, the hallowed director of the acclaimed "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." I'm personally not a fan of "Texas" and feel "Crocodile" is a much more entertaining effort.

The film was shot on a scenic lake in Mexico (although the story takes place in the USA). Needless to say, fabulous locations.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: There's a fake-looking CGI scene depicting the crocodile jumping over a boat that doesn't work at all, not to mention, it was highly unbelievable (of course, the WHOLE film is unbelievable, huh?). Other than that the F/X are fine for a Grade B flick; in fact, the crocodile looks great.

FINAL ANALYSIS: "Crocodile" is not great cinema but it is great mindless entertainment. It's got loads of energy. As testimony to its entertainment value, I've watched it three times in the last few years -- it's just a fun, re-watchable creature-on-the-loose flick highlighted by some extremely cute girls.

For comparison, "Crocodile" is overall way more entertaining than "Lake Placid."