Lake Placid
Australian Rating: M15+
Starring: Bridget Fonda, Bill Pullman, Oliver Platt, Betty White
There was Deep Blue Sea, a shameless Jaws/Jurassic Park ripoff, Anaconda and many other creature features. But the big surprise is, that Lake placid is actually pretty damn good!
Firstly, what must be recognised is that Lake Placid has a rather cleverly conceived and written script. It is fun, exciting, very humorous and blatantly sets out to ridicule other monster movies of its type!
The plot is simple enough. Bridget Fonda plays an archeologist who works in a museum, and is sent to investigate the origins of a tooth found in the half of the body that was left of a diver. She begins to search for the creature that the tooth came from, and is hindered and patronised by ranger, Pullman, and rich archeologist Oliva Platt who likes to swim with crocodiles. Something is definitely in Lake Placid, and the group set out with the Sheriff, to find it.
The result is a wonderfully witty film that is just "a joy to watch" (to coin a common film critic phrase). It is not one of those stupid monster movies, it actually has brains. The characters are surprisingly well developed and the stars are fit to their roles perfectly. This is probably Bill Pullman's best movie in a while. Just think of how crap Independence Day was! Oh, and that dreadful Sandra Bullock movie, "While you were sleeping". But, I digress. Briget Fonda is good in the lead female role and Oliva Platt is very funny as the Crocodile guru. Betty White (The Golden Girls) perhaps outshines the other stars as a foul-mouthed old woman who feeds the reptile.
The special effects add to the mix and Lake Placid ends up as a surprisingly enjoyable film, not what I expected when I saw the poster for the first time and said something like "That would have to be crap". Go get it from the video store now!
Much more entertaining than any Sandra Bullock movie.
15/07/2000 22:28