everything you have heard about this movie is true.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Blistering performances.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Well, it's crap, but it's entertaining crap. A lot of people judge this movie very harshly because it was directed by Tobe Hooper and I can't blame them. This isn't a good movie. It's silly, it panders to the teen crowd with awful dialogue and stupid jokes. The crocodile is laughable. Bad CGI. But there a few moments I do enjoy, some nice cinematography and overhead scenes of the lake and forest. And if you're a fan of the campy teen scare scene you'll probably enjoy the beginning at least a bit. Overall I'd say it's very middle of the road.

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-

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.

Alright... let's be honest here... when you come across a movie entitled Crocodile what can you expect at the most... I mean seriously. Your not gonna expect Jaws or any other big budget film... I guess what I'm getting at is that this movie is pretty decent for a low budget B monster movie. I mean the acting is a little below average considering it was most of the casts first movie. The effects are actually somewhat decent for the time, aside for a few shots of an ugly CG crocodile. The story has been done over and over but that's the fun of it, in my opinion, comparing them all together. The gore was decent and it was bloody enough to satisfy me. This movie, honestly, is what you'd expect from a B movie, and you can't really ask for anything more of it... you just can't. But i do believe this was the first to start the whole cheesy B crocodile movie phase but this one actually executed it pretty well. It's entertaining, fun, hilarious, cliché, and cheesy but that's what i look for when watching a film like this. So if you happen to look for the same things I look for one coming upon a film such as this than i recommend it, but if your looking for a Lake Placid then don't watch it.