Lake Placid 2

A sci-fi channel flick with Bo Duke; before you even rent/watch the movie, that should tell you not to take the film too seriously. All too often in these creature features, you get jipped on the violence, gore, nudity, and creature effects. Too often, the creature is seen for a total of 47 seconds in the entire movie. None of those things can be said about Lake Placid 2. It's a B-movie with some horrible editing and acting--but it's got all of the stuff that makes a bad movie good. While the CGI isn't always that spectacular (they even had a cheesy CGI plane-landing), the crocs are on-screen just as much as the actors are, and the body count is surprisingly high. It loosely follows the story of the original, with Cloris Leachman in for Betty White (and, actually, she raises herself above the other performances in the film). It doesn't strike the horror/comedy balance of the first film at all, but this is more of a B-movie creature flick than a true sequel. Compared to other low-budget films in the same genre, this one actually manages to rise above most of the others out there, and gives you the good stuff along with the laughs.

Everything about this so called "movie" screams 3rd rate. It is a pathetic attempt to cash in on a film that wasn't very good or successful to begin with! Why this got made, who knows. The script is laughable, the effects are worse than video-games, and the plot is really dumb. Don't waste your time, hell if you read this, you have spent too much time on this waste of celluloid. Every time you think movies can't get any worse, they do. I would be ashamed to have anything to do with this garbage. Here's the plot, let's kill these gators. The main characters are exactly the same as the 1st film too! Not the same actors mind you, but the exact same character. The little old lady who likes the croc's, the rich guy trying to kill them, even the beginning is almost exactly as the 1st film. I would recommend this to people that want to know what makes a bad movie, because this describes this "not even worthy of being called a film."

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.

The first Lake Placid was the type of movie that you loved or hated. I loved it. The actors had chemistry. The script was clever. The key was to take it for what it was. A lot of people did and it developed a cult following.

I wanted to love II. But, it wasn't there. I think they tried. But chemistry and hitting the exact same note is hard. I think they put together a good cast. The writing was supposed to make you grin. It just didn't pull together tight enough. Nice Try. Lake Placid a tough film to duplicate on any level.

I think a lot of the fans of the first one went into it with the right frame of mind. If you didn't see the first one you may not understand the choices they went with as far as corny dialogue and silliness. Maybe they can bring back Ms. Fonda for 3!

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!