Rated R
Reviewed by: Frank
July 17, 1999

Remember Kermit the Frog stating in the first muppet movie "Read my lips: AL-I-GA-TOR".  OK this is a crocodile and none of the characters in this film heed the warnings.

As animals disappear and human heads are bit off, an unusual group of folks gather to investigate the mayhem and learn if the cause emanates from a monster from the past.  Kelly Scott (Bridget Fonda) is a reluctant big-city girl who is unhappy with her first field assignment.  Fish and Game Warden Jack Wells (Bill Pullman) and sheriff Hank Keough (Brendan Gleeson) could do nicely without her help.  Add the eccentric mythology professor Hector Cyr (Oliver Platt) who loves to swim with crocodiles and the ingredients for a fifties style science fiction/horror flick are on the lake.  The surprising delightful character is Mrs. Delores Bickerman (Betty White), a recent widow and the only resident of the lake area.

The regional insults fly quickly and bring vulgar comic relief particularly as frightening moments are on the horizon.  Platt and White have the only parts which are at all interesting, the others are simply along for the ride.  The main character is the huge crocodile which measures thirty feet long and looks three times bigger as it attacks.

We are expected to believe that this group of people are willing to camp on the shore of Lake Placid knowing the monster is lurking just under the surface of the water.  Pullman's Jack Wells is the only likable character; that's because he is very passive and unobtrusive.  Lake Placid comes from the fifties library.  It has far better special effects, all the mechanics and none of the imagination.