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Jilted paleontologist joins team hunting overgrown crocodile at a remote lake in Maine. Borrows freely (albeit knowingly) from other films (Jaws, particularly, of course) and might have been just another ripoff, but this surprisingly entertaining monster movie gets major boost from game cast and fun script (by David E. Kelley) that keeps its eye on audiences rather than critics. Bridget Fonda is joined by Bill Pullman as a soft-spoken fish and game warden, Brendan Gleeson as a small-town sheriff, and Oliver Platt as an eccentric millionaire who believes crocs are divine. Followed by three sequels, all of which were made for TV.
"Instead of rooting for Pullman and Fonda, we end up praying that the crocodile is hungry enough to put them out of their misery." - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly, July 16, 1999
"[A]t 83 minutes, this short-attention-span cinema seems more geared to the braces and training bra set than to those who actually pay for tickets with their own money and have driver's licenses." - Michael O'Sullivan, The Washington Post, July 16, 1999
Jilted paleontologist joins team hunting overgrown crocodile at a remote lake in Maine. Borrows freely (albeit knowingly) from other films (Jaws, particularly, of course) and might have been just another ripoff, but this surprisingly entertaining monster movie gets major boost from game cast and fun script (by David E. Kelley) that keeps its eye on audiences rather than critics. Bridget Fonda is joined by Bill Pullman as a soft-spoken fish and game warden, Brendan Gleeson as a small-town sheriff, and Oliver Platt as an eccentric millionaire who believes crocs are divine. Followed by three sequels, all of which were made for TV.
"Instead of rooting for Pullman and Fonda, we end up praying that the crocodile is hungry enough to put them out of their misery." - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly, July 16, 1999
"[A]t 83 minutes, this short-attention-span cinema seems more geared to the braces and training bra set than to those who actually pay for tickets with their own money and have driver's licenses." - Michael O'Sullivan, The Washington Post, July 16, 1999