Wuchak RELEASED TO VIDEO IN 2000, "Crocodile" chronicles events in Southern Cal when a bunch of college kids go out to a scenic vacation lake for Spring Break where they encounter a giant crocodile concerned about her eggs. 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" (1974). I'm not a big fan of "Texas" (although I don't hate it either) and feel "Crocodile" is a more entertaining effort. These movies shouldn't really be compared, however, since "Texas" is serious slasher horror whereas "Crocodile" was made to be more amusing.There's a fake-looking CGI scene in the final act 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 Grade B horror; in fact, the creature looks superb."Crocodile" may not be great cinema but it's got loads of energy and is amusing creature feature entertainment. Anyone watching a flick called "Crocodile" knows up front that it ain't gonna be "Apocalypse Now." It's just a fun, re-watchable creature-on-the-loose flick highlighted by some curvy cuties: Sommer Knight as the stunning Sunny, Julie Mintz as the classy Annabelle and Caitlin Martin as the intelligent Claire. On the other side of the gender spectrum, Mark McLachlan stands out as the Tom Cruise-ish protagonist, Brady, and Chris Solari as the foil, Duncan. For comparison, "Crocodile" is overall way more entertaining than 1999's "Lake Placid" and superior to 1980's "Alligator." It's easily one of the best crocogator flicks.THE FILM RUNS 93 minutes and was shot at Lake Piru & Sable Ranch in Northern Los Angeles County and Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico.GRADE: A-

GL84 When a group of vacationing college students accidentally steal a mother crocodile's eggs from her nest, she unleashes a torrent of vengeance upon them and forcing them to team up with a pair of hunters to survive the slaughter.This here was a pretty enjoyable and reasonably entertaining killer creature feature that has some pretty good parts. The fact that this one is fairly cheesy is its greatest asset, making the film both enormously cheesy as well as generating its biggest flaw. By featuring the attacks with the CGI creature as the main attraction and using the admittedly-excellent animatronic in spurts where it looks ultra-convincing throughout these moments, it gets a lot of fun out of what is essentially a slasher movie with the villain being an unstoppable crocodile instead of a human. The three main attacks, the riverboat attacked when it's docked away, the foot-chase through the woods and the super-market attack, are given a good mixture of both uses for the creature but are the films' big action moments so there's a lot to like from there as well as giving the film some color with it's brutal and bloody deaths. With limbs ripped off, decapitations, death rolls and even live devouring, it's got more than expected in here and that's a fairly nice addition. Still, the cheesiness of the fake-shark, the cliché plot points and even character additions and utterly annoying main cast that are given lame story lines that aren't fun to follow along can provide this one with some problems.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, and scenes of substance abuse.

Bloodwank Of the various horror notables to emerge in the 1970's Tobe Hooper scored by far the finest achievement with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Its a great shame then that he also fell the hardest, his work largely drying up and turning crappy. This Nu Image (they of such classics as Octopus, Spiders, Octopus 2 and Spiders 2) effort is pretty much his nadir, a really crummy affair that manages to be less entertaining even than the massed crappy ranks of Sci Fi Channel original creature features that have befouled screens in recent years. Its a tale of youngsters on Spring Break, partying it up on a houseboat in a lake until a couple of them come across a nest of variously shattered eggs and decide to mess around with the few that aren't broken some more. The expected happens. Now, I have absolutely zero sympathy for anyone who gets themself into a situation like this, quite apart from common decency its a matter of basic common sense not to mess with someones young, especially when you have no idea what or how big that someone is. Like, if you were trying to steal eggs from a golden eagle and the thing came down and pecked your eyes out and then pooped on you or something, nobody would be sympathetic because rank idiocy isn't a thing of sympathy. So I pretty much wanted several of the cast to die particularly horribly, and I can't say as I had nice thoughts for the rest as none of the characters are likable or interesting. Sadly, the horrible death never comes. All the kills are pretty tame, when actually on screen they generally come down to nothing more than mildly bloody and not especially convincing chomping action and occasionally some minor blood spray. It pretty much ruins things as gore was the main thing that could have propped this one up, and is especially unfortunate as the usually great KNB team handled the effects work. The crocodile itself is at least pretty cool, a good sized and decently fierce looking beast achieved through a mixture of animatronics and CGI, its more than convincing enough for a film of this stature and raises the game whenever its on screen. But since it isn't on screen all that much and rarely gets to do anything cool (mostly its just jumping and gobbling people) it doesn't raise the film too much. Still, attacks on a houseboat and local store are kinda fun and it does amuse in a couple of spots. The cast do their best with the material but its pretty much horrid so they don't put across a good impression. Mark McLachlan is a limp hero, Caitlin Martin a nice looking but dull love interest, Chris Solari making the biggest impression as the loud mouth ass of the group. There's some nice scenery and the film is never completely boring, but its really pretty terrible and I wouldn't recommend it other than to the least discerning viewers.

hjaggs Terrible dialogue, unreasonably attractive characters and semi-sane logic. All present and correct, but they appear alongside a healthy dose of fun and this makes up for a lot. Tobe Hooper's direction is fine, if a little familiar (the camera moves towards the teenagers through the reeds and water... just like a crocodile), and only adds to the playful familiarity of the film. We've seen this plot before in countless other movies, but we like it! Unlike in other films of the genre, there's nothing terribly gory or unpleasant in this film. Of course, there are deaths, but the over-acting and ludicrous circumstances render them almost jokey.This isn't a film for die-hard gore fans, but if you're looking for a gentle thrill or a funny couple of hours spent watching a friendly and rubbish, but enjoyable, great-big-animal film, this is as good a one as any.