By Jeff Swindoll Feb 5, 2008, 13:08 GMT
Well it’s not exactly a croc of something, but it sure beats the flaccid Lake Placid 2. Since it’s another Sci-Fi Channel movie we’re not exactly talking a classic. However, it does entertain which that other killer croc movie didn’t manage to do (though in a guilty pleasure sort of way).
Jack McQuade (Peter Tuinstra) is the owner of a reptile zoo in Thailand. The Konsong brothers, Andy (Taewon Saetang) and “Cap” (Wasan Junsook), are developers who want the land that Jack’s zoo is on to build a resort. So they’re bribing every official they can and engaging in all sorts of dirty tricks to get Jack off the land.
They send animal inspector Evelyn (Sherry Phungprasert) to go and find all that she can to close down the zoo. However, she’s honest and only finds minor violations and tells Jack that he can keep the zoo open if he corrects them. Since her boss was bribed to send in Evelyn and the Konsongs don’t like her recommendations, she gets fired but returns to help Jack out.
Soon a giant crocodile has shown up and is feeding on the population of the town and the blame is placed on Jack’s zoo (much to the Konsong’s delight since they broke into the zoo and let loose the crocs so that the zoo would get the blame).
Croc Hawkins (Michael Madsen) has been tracking the beast and shows up in town. Soon Jack’s crocs are cleared of wrongdoing since the bite marks are from a massive beast. A reward is offered for the capture of the beast and soon the whole town is in on the action and the giant croc has plenty of people to feast upon.
Croc owes as much to Jaws as another title from the “Maneater Series.” That title would actually be Maneater, the touching story of a man-eating tiger loose in sheriff Gary Busey’s woods. This film replaces the tiger with a killer croc and replaces Gary Busey with Michael Madsen. What probably sinks Croc is that the really rotten croc flick Lake Placid 2 preceded it onto DVD.
A flick that gives celluloid crocodiles a bad name since it was just made to cash in on the first film and done on the cheap. Croc is given a few more legs up in that it does appear to have actually been shot in Thailand (oddly enough Lake Placid 2 was shot in Bulgaria filling in as the United States!) and the scenery is very exotic.
Michael Madsen also does much better in his role than the entire cast of the other film. In the end it’s an entertaining little time killer from the Sci-Fi Channel and producers Robert Halmi Jr. and Robert Halmi Sr. The croc also seems must a wee bit more believable than the CGI boogers since it’s played by models, prosthetics, a real baby croc shot underwater and just a little CGI.
Just because it’s better than the other killer croc movie, it’s not going to be winning any awards but its nice for a watching while dangling your feet off the dock at the lake (in Thailand or Bulgaria).
Croc is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include trailers other titles in the “Maneater Series.”
Croc doesn’t really do anything new, but the exotic location and a good performance from Michael Madsen (the rest of the cast is a bit iffy) raise it a bit above the competition.
Croc is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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