|
| Lake Placid |
|
  (3/10)
|
Runtime: 87 m |
| Public Rating: 5.44 (16 votes) |
Director: Steve Miner |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Horror? |
Year: 1999 |
| Writer(s): David E. Kelley |
| Reviewed by: Matthew Coats |
| |
A common advertising "trick" used in movies is too compare it to another. That's why EVERY comdey released recently has been called "This year's There's Something About Mary." Pretty good idea since "There's Something About Mary" was a funny and popular film. But when Lake Placid was released it was called "This Year's Anaconda" Anaconda was a very bad movie. That'd be like saying "This year's Ishtar" or "This Year's Battlefield Earth" But in reality, this movie really WAS "This year's Anaconda" in the fact that it sucked and stole half of it's ideas from Anaconda and Jaws. But this is a Steve Miner film, so I guess it's supposed to. I mean all of Steve Miner's films, no matter how sucky are popular. Like friday the 13th Part 2 is considered better than the original, and Friday the 13th part 3 was the highest grossing of the whole series. And a lot of dumb people liked
The movie opens with a guy being attacked by a monster underwater, ripped in half. So this dumb hick sherrif thinks it's a bear. He even finds a tooth and thinks it's a bear. That's pretty moronic considereing that A) Bears don't live underwater and B) Bears don't have Crocodile teeth. Even a representative from Fish and Game thinks it's a bear, and he should know that. Finally they fly in Bridget Fonda for no apparant reason other than to say "It's a Crocodile, not a bear."
So they spend some time hanging around this lake. Now, Lake Placid is in upstate New York. This movie takes place in Maine. It's a veryobvious error, but it's cleared up later with some half-assed dialogue saying "This is Black Lake, but people call it Lake Placid, but that name's already taken." I figure, if they're gonna have it take place at one lake, but name it after another, why not go for broke. Name it "The Great Salt Lake" or "Lake Superior" or even "Caspian Sea" the largest lake in the world! Think BIG people!
So later, this helicoptor shows up and Bridget Fonda explains how it's an Australlian guy who is an expert on Crocodiles. I was hoping that this would be that cool guy on the Discovery channel that chases crocs and plays with deadly snakes and always says "Cricky! This bugger's pissed!" But it's not. Instead it's a dorky guy who has a faux Australlian accent that disapperas and reappears over time.
The highlight and only thing that makes this movie fun to watch is Betty White, best known for her role as Rose on "Golden Girls." She plays this kooky old woman who frankly tells the cops that she killed her husband. They don't care that she's murdered her husband, but when she starts feeding live cows to a Crocodile, they get mad. So it's completly alright for this cute little old lady to say "If I had dick this would be where I tell you to suck it."
So pretty much every plot point and camera effect is taken from Jaws or Anaconda. For it's unoriginality, lame dialogue, lack of screenwriting, and general suckiness, I'd give thsi movie a 2. But the charmingness of Betty White (who I actually met once), gives it an extra star.
|
 Printable Version
|
Do you agree/disagree with this review of Lake Placid? Let your opinions be heard in our forum.
|
Buy the Poster of Lake Placid (Click Here)
|
|
|
|
