Lake Placid 2

I've come to expect very little out of the SciFi channel's made for TV movies, but this ranks tight alongside of "Babylon 5: Legend of the Rangers" as am egregious example of how SciFi's clueless network suits can prostitute a great work with an appallingly bad sequel.

I'm a great fan of the original "Lake Placid". David E. Kelly's writing in the original is among the sharpest of any film in memory. It had a delightfully witty script and excellent performances by talented actors. The characters were well textured without a stereotype among them.

By comparison, the script of this film is drek. Thre is almost no wit evident. It's trite and formulaic. The characters are all 2-dimensional stereotypes from central casting. The "special" effects were everything I've come to expect from SciFi channel movies - ham-fisted and amateurish.

I might have given this film a rating of 2 or 3, but for potentially tainting the reputation of the original, I give it a 1 - but only because there's no option to give it a zero!

Junk. Pure and simple.

An unnecessary and useless sequel to the self-mocking and campy comedy/horror Lake Placid. Not one of the original cast signed on for this dog, a very good decision on their part. Well, the baby crocodiles you see in the closing of the other movie apparently have grown up, and now have decided to pick up where their parents left off, and eat lots of people.

John Schneider is the sheriff, and just grins a lot. Cloris Leachman reprises Betty White's nut job (as her sister), but without the funny lines. A big game hunter with grenade launchers fails to match Oliver Platt's role, and the Bridgette Fonda look-alike also does nothing. Sheriff John has summertime custody of a poor actor teen son, in order to introduce some annoying cardboard cutout screaming teens. Since Croc Jr. seems to have an appetite for annoying cardboard cutout screaming teens, you quickly realize what their function to the story is, and you find yourself rooting for the croc to eat them as soon as possible. There's one idiotic scene, apparently ripped off from the 3 Stooges, where a croc victim is talking while the creature behind him waits patiently for him to shut up, before devouring him.

Nothing interesting happens. Really a bad movie, that fails at both horror and comedy. All it does is waste your time.

I'd seen Lake Placid at a friend's house one night, and thought it entertaining, so I was happy to see a sequel was going to be shown. Now though, I have to say I wish they hadn't bothered. Overall, the movie is just poorly done. The acting is terrible; even John Schneider, who I usually enjoy, disappointed me. I'd equate the acting in the film with a middle school performance. And something was off with the sound- it almost sounds like they pre-recorded all the lines, and just matched it up with the film.

The special effects, if possible, are even worse than the acting. Very fake looking, and extremely amateur; this looks like a high school project! There are several times when you can see parts of the crocodiles magically pass through things.

On the plus side, little as it is, some of the characters were mildly entertaining in the sense that the acting was so terrible. There's one actor in particular who screamed like a girl, and that made me laugh. I'll also add that if you saw and liked the first, you may want to watch this just to satisfy your curiosity. Beyond that though, it's not worth it.

Sci-Fi channel movies are notorious for their constant cheeziness. This one should be perched at the very top of the heap. Since I loved the original, LAKE PLACID, I thought this might be at least an interesting experience. From the first scene to the last, this garbage proved that there are still Neanderthals out there in the movie making business. In the first shot, we see two men in a boat. One of them is quickly gobbled up by a giant croc. His companion merely stares at the water, blinks his eyes and says "Oh, my God!" in the next scene, he is in the sheriff's office and has told his story to the deputies. Their reactions? They all sit around whooping and giggling and nudging each other as if they've heard the funniest joke of the year. And then the sheriff drops in and asks this survivor what his problem is and the survivor merely shrugs and says "there's a problem" out there on the lake. Even after the sheriff is nearly swallowed alive by the creature, he's joking and laughing just seconds later. In fact, no one in the miserable cast ever act as if they're in any danger at all. After every death, they're all joking and laughing and skipping along as if nothing has happened. We're treated--if that's the word--to several scenes of the girls stripping off their bras. I guess we're supposed to be panting with passion at this. One of the craziest scenes is when the hot-headed jerk is mouthing off to his two companions how he would never ever believe there's a monster croc. One slips up right behind him, less than two feet away. His two companions merely stare and say, "Eh, you'd better come along." They act as if there's a squirrel or a possum just a few feet away from them. Of course, the hot-headed jerk is swallowed alive and his companions skip away. And then one of them says, "I can't believe I saw that." The special effects are the type you'd find in an elementary school room. this would be a perfect laugh-out-loud movie to watch along with that other much-praised masterpiece of lousiness: HANDS OF MANOS.

Lake Placid 2 (2007)

** (out of 4)

A sheriff, a PETA loving vet and a bounty hunter are trying to stop several large crocs who keep eating the locals. The sheriff also has to worry about his teenage son and friends as well as a crazy old woman (Cloris Leachman) who might be feeding the beasts. As I said, this film is somewhat better than the original because it doesn't take itself too serious. None of the actors are very good but they are entertaining enough to keep the film going whenever the monster isn't on screen. What really kills the film are the horrible CGI gore effects and CGI crocs. The crocs are so fake looking that you can never take them too serious. The film might be worse than I'm giving it credit for but it seems the director was trying to make things a tad bit silly with some over the top goofiness. I'm sure fans of the original movie aren't going to enjoy the step down in terms of quality actors but if you've seen enough of these "nature attack" movies then you know there's much worse out there.