|
Director: Steve Miner Screenplay: David E. Kelley Starring: Bridget Fonda, Bill Pullman, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson, Betty White, Meredith Salenger, Mariska Hargitay, Adam Arkin (uncredited) Running Time: 82 minutes Studio: Twentieth Century Fox MPAA Rating: R |
Big bad croc in backwoods Maine. One twinkie-lovin' sheriff (Brendan Gleeson). One big-city paleontologist (Bridget Fonda). One square-jawed game warden (Bill Pullman). One rich croc-huntin' weirdo (Oliver Platt). One crazy old broad (Betty White). Mix together with a pinch of sarcasm, a dollop of Stan Winston creature effects, and a huge helping of Jaws/Anaconda clichés. Potboil until rancid.
Lake Placid adds very little to the "terror from the water" horror picture subgenre. Scriptwriter David E. Kelley (odd, how the creative genius behind Picket Fences, The Practice, Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal and the upcoming Mystery Alaska could come up with this mess) has added a buttload of sarcastic humor to an otherwise overly familiar story -- as an example, as one point, Oliver Platt holds up a severed toe and asks Gleeson, "Is this the man?" to which the sheriff replies, "He seemed much taller." -- but the humor is superficial, at best, and does nothing to advance the plot. Director Steve Miner (Halloween H20, several episodes of Dawson's Creek, Chicago Hope and The Practice) manages to keep things lively -- scenes between attacks are usually short and either filled with character tension or humor, usually the sheriff walking into one of the rich guy's traps or Betty White cheerfully chatting about whacking her late husband with a frying pan.
Characters are introduced with the briefest of explanations. Within the first five minutes, we meet the sheriff and another game warden, out to tag beavers, who is dead by the end of the scene. It's hard for the audience to connect to these characters and even harder to believe they're connecting with each other, as four of them do.
The croc effects are (mostly) good, but dangling a cow from a helicopter as bait is distasteful. (Didn't White, an inveterate animal lover, object to this scene?) Moviegoers are already comparing Lake Placid to Anaconda, and as silly as the latter is, Placid suffers by comparison.
RATING: 1/2 star
Related Sites
|
