The title creature, after being flushed down a toilet as a baby, grows to monstrous proportions over a 12-year period by feasting on the discarded bodies of animals chock full of illegal growth hormones, with which a chemical company has been experimenting. After a while, the big guy gets
hungry and wreaks reptilian havoc on Los Angeles, even getting some sort of revenge by slurping down the chemical plant's owner (Dean Jagger). Cop David Madison (Robert Forster) and a female scientist (Robin Riker) team up to destroy the gator and start up a romance as well. Sure, this sounds
stupid, and it is--but it's quite a bit of fun, too. Screenwriter John Sayles, whose own work as a director (MATEWAN; EIGHT MEN OUT) has been critically acclaimed, and director Lewis Teague have loaded ALLIGATOR with visual puns, film-buff jokes, and a few frightening moments as well. Forster is
very likable as the problem-ridden cop, and Riker, an attractive but tough redhead, is wonderfully charismatic as the herpetologist whose mom and dad threw the little gator down the toilet in the first place. All in all, a fine example of what a sense of humor can do with a low budget and an old
idea.
