Lake Placid (1999)

As far as big crocodile on the loose film's go, Lake Placid wasn't really to bad. Seems a thirty foot crocodile has migrated to the state of Maine where it has decided to take up permanent residency in a nearby lake. After a scuba diver is attacked and bit in half, the local fish and wildlife bunch team up with a sexy n' sassy scientist chick to track the big croc down. Lake Placid is not really so much of a monster on the loose flick as films that came before it like Jaws and of course, Alligator. And I mean that in the sense that the monster doesn't really attack anyone, let alone eat them. The film basically is about the cast of characters trying to track down the thing, and you get the feeling after a while that you're watching a sitcom with a big crocodile thrown in for novelty's sake. You can tell that the filmmakers really wanted you to like the characters involved, but all their antics got real old, real fast, and what's even worse, no one gets ate except for about two people. That's not to say I did not enjoy the attempted humor at times, but the film needed more chomping and less yakking. On the f/x side of things, this flick used lot's of CGI, but it actually looked pretty good on screen and not like a damn video game or something. The croc looked convincing, and I really got a kick out of the part where it attacked a grizzly bear on the side of the lake. That was pretty nifty I suppose. There were bits of gore here and there, though nothing too intense. You'll see a nifty decapitation by crock mouth, and a pretty gruesome scene, as I mentioned above, where the scuba guy gets chomped in half. You don't actually see him get bit, but when his body gets dragged up into the boat it kind of gets to you. The film's ending was also ok, as it had one or two suspenseful parts in it. To wrap it up, Lake Placid is worth a rental....though give me 1980's Alligator any day of the week.