Lake Placid (1999)
a review by Christian Pyle
"Lake Placid" Directed by Steve Miner Written by David E. Kelley Starring Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson, Betty White Official Site: http://www.foxmovies.com/lakeplacid/ Grade: D-
"Lake Placid" marks yet another entry in the series of "predator pics" that were a screen staple in the late 1970s (post-"Jaws") and were revived recently by the godawful "Anaconda." "Placid" claims to be a "horror/comedy"-it's directed by the same guy who did "House"-but its attempts at humor are actually less funny than deadpan seriousness of "Anaconda."
Paleontologist Kelly Scott (Bridget Fonda) is sent up to Maine to examine a tooth removed from a body that had been bitten in half on the lake. Discovering that the tooth belongs to a crocodile (which shouldn't even be in this hemisphere), Kelly goes croc-hunting with Game Warden Jack Wells (Bill Pullman) and Sheriff Hank Keough (Brendan Gleeson). They're joined by an unwelcome guest, Hector Cyr (Oliver Platt), a scholar who worships crocs and searches all over the world for them. Along the way, the merry band meets Mrs. Delores Bickerman (Betty White), a weird old lady who lives out on the lake.
You know what to expect from this movie: lots of shots where the camera is the eyes of the predator (croc cam) swimming toward someone's dangling legs while "Jaws"-like music plays, one character (Hector) who's obsessed with the croc and stupidly endangers the rest, another character who insists that the predator can't possibly exist. Unlike its slippery cousin "Anaconda," "Lake Placid" wants to present its formulaic plot tongue-in-cheek, which is self-defeating. The result is neither scary nor funny; it's just tedious.
While director Steve Miner has several horror films on his resume (including two installments of "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween H20"), screenwriter David Kelley (best known as the creator of TV series like "Ally McBeal" and "Chicago Hope") doesn't seem to have the stomach for a chomp 'em up flick. The body count is surprisingly low and doesn't include any of the major characters, and most annoyingly Kelly and Hector insist that they capture the crocodile alive rather than killing it. ("Lake Placid" manages to have it both ways-I'll let you discover how for yourself).
The croc itself is mostly computer-generated, of course. Like the snake in "Anaconda," the thirty-foot monster crocodile doesn't seem real; it moves too quickly and in ways that seem unnatural. "Lake Placid" also offers little explanation for why a giant crocodile is in Maine. There is a lot of semi-mystical mumbo jumbo about how "we really don't know much about crocodiles." They would have been better off going with something like the urban myth about alligators in the sewers. A movie like this doesn't have to offer much of an explanation (radioactive mutant? creature from outer space?), but it does have to give the audience something to hang their disbelief on.
Pullman and Fonda seem to be plodding through the movie on auto-pilot. Most of the time, they're probably thinking about killing their agents or wondering if making this movie marks the end of their careers. Platt and White, on the other hand, seem to be giving their best efforts, and they manage to squeeze a few chuckles out of this sorry script.
© 1999 Christian L. Pyle
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