The millennium was brim-full of creature features thanks to CGI becoming cheap. It wasn’t good CGI, they weren’t competing with Jurassic Park, but huge versions of scary animals.
Of course, most of those films were not directed by Tobe ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ Hooper. Was that film a fluke and did Steven Spielberg direct Poltergeist? Yeah, probably. He did make some entertaining films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Invaders from Mars, and Lifeforce, but his filmography is mostly below average.
Sharks were most popular and kept the creature feature genre going to present day, but all carnivorous got their 5 minutes—especially if there was a big budget film made about it in the late 90s. David E. Kelley gave the world Lake Placid, so we have Crocodile.
Crocodiles are quite intelligent. Not as intelligent as their cousins the birds, but smarter than most other reptiles. The one here kills a dude in his car and then hides the car in the swamp. That means this monster croc is at least as intelligent as Norman Bates.
Crocodile follows the template most of these budget films followed. A group of friends goes to some outskirt part of the woods to party. Troup consists of the usual tropes: the nice guy, his jerk best friend, his innocent girlfriend, the slut, the nerd, the disposable ones… There isn’t much to be said about them.
The character who steals the show is the sheriff. An old man who doesn’t like these kids coming to his town, boozing it up and causing mischief. He is portrayed by Harrison Young who is most famous for being the old version of Ryan in the beginning of Saving Private Ryan. He should’ve been in more flicks.
The sheriff and the general nostalgic vibe I get from these films are enough to keep me entertained. Also, there is one noteworthy thing to mention. Its ‘why is the monster following and attacking us!?’ is exactly the same as in Jurassic Park 3 had a year later. Don’t steal eggs and put them in your bags, people.
