Lake Placid–I am sure this looked like a good flick on paper: Bridget Fonda, Bill Pullman (Zero Effect & Space Balls et cetera) and of course Oliver Platt (who usually has better taste in his roles than this) all contending with big, almost prehistoric, creatures. What happened? Billing itself as a Horror/Comedy it is neither, instead it is one cliché after another and something that really gets my goat: it is 100% predictable. After a mediocre start at best, this film fatally lost both pace and excitement.
The movie has a story that is truly paper thin. Bridget Fonda played the all too annoying “fish out of water” scientist from the big city—wow that’s original—Pullman the strong silent type in charge of the guiding the fish out of water using predictable humor along the way and Oliver Platt appearing as the independently wealthy party-boy professor who is obsessed with crocodiles. It is unfortunate that his antics are the highlight of the movie and the exchanges with the local sheriff was about the only thing that kept me in my seat from leaving.
Now in addition to the totally predictable ending, once again Hollywood feels the need to preach to us. At the end, the viewer apparently is supposed to feel sympathy for the remaining crocodile which will be cared for and we should be delighted that the movie ended the way it did. I don’t know, but it seems to me that if a giant creature was eating people alive, I don’t have a need to feel too sorry for it.
Unfortunately this movie has become (or will be) a cult classic. But it is crap.
J.P.'s I'm Outta Here Movie Thoughts 