Lake Placid 2

with a few nods to the original film, including Cloris Leachman playing the sister of Betty White's unforgettable foul-mouthed character from the original, this film tries to step up to the plate. apparently set a few years after the original, there are suddenly more deaths, and, guess what? a croc in the lake. actually, 3 this time around. John Schneider plays the sheriff and a cast of "looks-familiar-but-don't-know their-name" fills in the rest of the menu. the CGI is there, really noticeable and really bad, as it is in most of the sci-fi channel movies. at least there are some good-looking stereotyped kids thrown into the mix this time, camping at the lake at the worst possible time. David Kelly's original script had some intelligence, great character development and nicely-done humor that is really missing here. i give them credit for trying, but it's lacking...well....almost everything.

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.

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.

Unfortunately I didn't get to watch this on SciFi originally but saw a copy recently since they're releasing it to DVD soon(www.lakeplacid2dvd.com).

After hearing Schneider was taking the lead I thought this could have gone somewhere. His acting was tolerable, and the characters were mildly entertaining, but the low budget sequel was simply that.

It was so evident David Flores was trying to not only live up to the original, but to mimic it, painstakingly. From the plot, to the character quirks, even to the shocking one liners, we can see his aims at cult classic stardom. It falls horribly short, making for one amusing B movie wannabe.

You watch a B movie for the unreal script and crappy effects anyway, why not take it a step farther. Our affinity towards flicks like Snakes on a Plane or Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, and any other horror-comedy is our intense desire to see some clever crap.

Lake Placid 1 was clever crap, Lake Placid 2 was crap that tries to be clever. And it's awesome watching the no name production team try.

Who takes this kind of thing seriously anyway? My opinion is, it's worth the $4 movie rental. Kick back on a Wednesday night with a couple of beers, and I guarantee the banter between you and your buddies will be well worth your time. There's a couple of KILLER one liners that'll make their way into your hall of shame quote book, guaranteed.

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.