Films like this are sometimes hard to judge. For Lake Placid happens to be pathetically uninspired with mostly subpar acting, especially by Pullman. The creature itself isn’t necessarily convincing in it’s look, with animatronic being a little better then CG and the ending is so over the top that you can’t take it seriously. Yet somehow it still manages to be a mildly enjoyable film. As stated before this is a ridiculous story, a crocodile supposedly from India swims all the way across the ocean to this small town. And of course in keeping with tradition it has be an animal of sensationalized proportions, for the croc is probably around thirty feet long. However there are two factors to the film that make it easily watchable. One is the fact that the deaths, which really are the focus of these types of films, are wonderfully gory and somewhat inventive. Two is the very funny Oliver Platt whose interactions with all the other ho hum characters take this film to the genre of horror/comedy. While I’ve always believed that horror comedies are some of the lowest forms of filmmaking, this one manages to get some laughs.

It’s not as if any of the character’s (with the exception of Platts) are very interesting but I suppose it would be naïve of me to think that they would be in such a film. It’s not naïve of me to think that the actors would at least show a little effort in their performances however. The worst offender is Bill Pullman who is about as personable as a piece of driftwood floating down the town’s lake. His zombie like delivery and passive attitude to almost everything that goes on in the film almost puts one to sleep while watching it. On the other side of this would be overracting. A felony commited by Bridget Fonda, who tries entirely too hard to make every scene she’s in a virtual freak out of sorts. Always screaming, yelling, or proclaiming why small town people pale in comparison to the much cleaner city. She’s rahter unconvincing and almost always irritable. Comfortably in between is Brendan Gleeson as the town’s sheriff, who while never really memorable, except when he’s interacting with Platt, does display enough dry wit to be amusing. But the real treat as I’ve been stating is the comedic performance by Oliver Platt in the role of Hector. A performance just crazy enough to be believable. Of course I was hardpressed to believe that a crocodile worshipper of sorts would venture to a small town just to see the animal they have there when he could go anywhere in the world and swim with tons of them. But he was simply too funny for me to care. His character is rather classless, telling a female officer, “Law enforcement is dangerous work, and you have such wonderful boobs.” But I suppose that’s why he’s funny, he says the wrong things at all the wrong times and always finds himself in the most trouble. And at the very far end of the sprectum on the plane of bizarre is Betty White of Golden Girls fame. She plays a little old lady with a love for the croc and a disregard for human life. It’s an odd role, but once again funny nonetheless. Telling a police officer, “If I had a dick, this is where I’d tell you to suck it” always gets a laugh.

Is it a good film, probably not. In fact it’s really just a rip off of countless films in the genre, all of them basically remaking the original Jaws, just using different creatures. I wasn’t expecting to take the film seriously and I didn’t. So therefore I found some enjoyment of it. However the enjoyment is never really on a quality level as much as absurdity that can be laughed at. Oliver Platt gives the only really engaging performance. Stan Winston does the work on the creature, as far as the animatronic part is concerned. I myself wasn’t all that impressed. It looked robotic and not really lifelike at all. Perhaps worse though was the CG version of the creature which looks so sharply different then the animatronic that you find yourself confused. I’m not really sure what David E. Kelly was thinking when he made this film but my advice would be to stick with television.