Crocodile Reviews

After fishermen destroy its nest, a monstrous crocodile hungers for revenge. Eight vacationing college students, including troubled couple Brady (Mark McLaughlin) and Claire (Caitlin Martin), board a buddy's houseboat and unwittingly sail right into the creature's habitat. They soon have more important things to worry about than the fact that he's cheating on her. As a joke, one of Mark's pals hides a crocodile egg in Claire's knapsack; when the houseboat gets beached on a sandbar, the killer croc seizes the opportunity to retrieve its baby-in-a shell. Everyone escapes through the woods and takes refuge in a general store, but the beast chews its way in and polishes off several victims. The sheriff and a swamp rat rescue Brady, Claire and Duncan (Chris Solari), but the young people aren't yet out of danger. This monster mash is neither as engagingly acted as LAKE PLACID (1999) nor as ingeniously scripted as ALLIGATOR (), but may satisfy fans of movies about oversized reptiles on the rampage. Essentially a slasher, it substitutes the title creature for a human psychopathic killer and comes with the same audience warning: check your brains and whatever sense of empathy you possess at the door. Veteran director Tobe Hopper, whose second feature, EATEN ALIVE (1976), also revolved around a killer crocodile, appears to be working on auto-pilot and the performances arelazy. But longtime special effects artist Greg Nicotero and his team work diligently to make each swish of the crocodile's tail and each snap of its jaws seem realistic. It's hard to care which beer-swilling, bed-hopping students wind up on the bayou brunch menu, but the carnage is exemplary.