Killer Crocodile 2

A corrupt land developer is pursued by a tenacious and ambitious investigative journalist (Karr) after another journalist uncovers evidence of radioactive waste being dumped in the local swamps. But when our rogue reporter goes missing in the swamps, her employer calls in the expert – Anthony Crenna, appearing half way through the film as the visiting specialist on all-things swamp, like gi-normous crocodiles. Through a series of painful recollections, Crenna labours in the tortured soul characterisation, and re-acquaints with local game hunter Girolami to go in search of another giant crocodile, and hopefully, find Karr alive and well.

Former special effects man De Rossi follows up the mediocre 1989 offering with this flimsy concept of a sequel. There's even less to this outing than the original – ridiculous dialogue (although it's impossible to tell just how bad it is, considering the English dub), laughable set-ups and a puerile make-up effects leave little room for suspense, thrills or basic plot cohesion. Awkward attempts at humour fail miserably, but then the acting is so stilted and amateurish, it would be unfair to expect a cast of this quality to master the timing required to deliver comedy, when they struggle attempting to convey fear and surprise. The crocodile itself moves through the water like it's being towed by an outboard.

Leading man Crenna (Richard's son) arrives in the second half with immediate impact, while the bubbly and effervescent Karr is enthusiastic, if somewhat at the mercy of the poor script. "Killer Crocodile 2" is a virtual carbon copy of its predecessor and looks like director De Rossi (who provided the special effects for the first film) combined mostly out-takes and left-over footage to cobble together a quick cash-in. If there's any redeemable features at all, the music isn't bad, and, Enio Girolami (aka Thomas Moore) is laughably intense, but there's little more to recommend. I paid $2 for this movie as an ex-rental, and that's about the worth.

A horrendously funny sequel bearing no actual horror (and it is categorized as a horror film), actually having more than good nature photography and swamp, river sceneries and cheesy, goofy, nice acting than terrible visual effects.

It is fun for a pass time, especially if you watch it dubbed in Italian, which suits the beautiful power two Debra Karr very much.

Who and how (were) funded these movies is beyond me.

• Screenplay/storyline/plots: 3.5
• Development: 6.5
• Realism: 3.5
• Entertainment: 6.5
• Acting: 4
• Filming/photography/cinematography: 6
• VFX: 2.5
• Music/score/sound: 5
• Depth: 3
• Logic: 1.5
• Flow: 5.5
• Horror: 2.5
• Ending: 4.

Although the gigantic killer crocodile was killed at the end of the previous film, she managed to leave behind an egg that hatches in the same swamp at the beginning of this movie. Meanwhile, a newspaper reporter for the New York Chronicle named "Liza Post" (Debra Karr) has been assigned the case involving the illegal dumping in that swamp which has yet to be cleaned up. Sent to help her is the swamp expert by the name of "Kevin Jones" (Anthony Crenna) who killed the killer crocodile in the first movie. Now, as far as this film is concerned it certainly could have been much better. The dialogue was substandard and some of the scenes were pretty bad as well. But to be fair the movie was filmed in Italian and dubbed into English so I suppose some allowances should be made. Also on the plus side was the presence of Debra Karr who was absolutely stunning. Still, as I stated earlier, this movie could have used some improvement and even though I enjoyed it, in all fairness I have to rate it as slightly below average.

"Killer Crocodile 2" runs 82 minutes (including credits). About half of those are dead space - like a female reporter's petty bickering with her colleagues back in "New York". Roughly 10 more minutes are taken up by flashbacks = footage lifted from the original film (including its ending). That leaves about 30 minutes of pure crocodile-chomping-on-people action, and the croc itself looks good; even if it's stodgy at times, it's still vastly preferable to the computerized crocs of such recent bombs as "Crocodile" and "Blood Surf". But the script is so lazy that just when the movie looks about to finally get going, we get a stupid climax and it's all over. Anthony Crenna repeats his role from the first film; don't expect any acting awards coming for him anytime soon. Leading lady Debra Karr has (at least in the first half) a self-assured, take-no-sh*t attitude that I quite liked. (*1/2)

I'm a fan of movie composer Riz Ortolani, but his music for the Killer Crocodile movies is uninspired and unoriginal, Ortolani shamelessly ripping off John Williams' score for Jaws. Still, I guess it's fitting in a way, because both Killer Croc films are far from groundbreaking, borrowing heavily from earlier examples of the 'killer animal' genre, including - of course - Spielberg's '75 classic.

Italian special effects man Giannetto De Rossi dusts off his humongous reptile model from the original film (although I'm not sure if the word 'original' is really applicable) and also takes over the directorial reins (from Fabrizio De Angelis), but he is unable to bring anything new to the table, his sequel treading the same murky water as the first film, taking place in the same location - a Caribbean swamp - and featuring two of the same characters, croc expert Joe (Ennio Girolami) and (ex) environmentalist Kevin (Richard Anthony Crenna).

Kevin is sent to the swamp to help feisty New York reporter Liza (Debra Karr) on her assignment to investigate unscrupulous property developer Mr. Baxter, who plans to open a swanky holiday resort despite having dumped barrels of radioactive material in the area. As it happens, nuclear waste is the least of their problems: there's another massive killer crocodile in the water, chomping on anyone who ventures into his stomping ground (including a couple of nuns and a load of school children!).

Although it's far from a great film, if you enjoyed the first one, then there's a good chance you'll have fun with this sequel as well, De Rossi delivering lots of trashy croc action and a smidgen of gore, with more than a little silliness and even some gratuitous nudity (which was sorely lacking from De Angelis' film). The giant crocodile itself is a passable creation, but still shonky enough to provide a few giggles; however, the funniest moment comes at the end of the film, when the special effects 'genius' swaps his oversized toothy horror for a miniature, complete with 'action man figure' clinging to its back. It's so bad it's impossible not to love.

4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.