Review of Albino Alligator (1997) by Nicola D — 22 Mar 2012

Law: Albo gator... sacrifice for a gain. .

"Deliberate sacrifice for deliberate gain.".

Everything about Albino Alligator seemed intriguing on paper. It's got a formidable cast with Dillon, Sinise, Fichtner, and Dunaway. It has Kevin Spacey as the director, and despite having a story that's been done a million times, the story always seems like a good idea. So I was sort of surprised to see such distain across the board for the film. Still, everything was too intriguing to pass up, and I'm happy that I at least gave the movie a shot because in the end, I didn't hate it.

Now Albino Alligator is nothing special. I just want to get that out there right now. If you never see it, it wouldn't be a big deal. The story is something you've seen before and will see again. It is the international robbery story, where a group of criminals robbery is botched and they are left cornered with hostages, and the police outside. So how are they going to get away? That's the whole movie. The criminals are cornered in a basement bar, and must come up with a way to get out of there with their freedom and with their lives.

To me, it isn't surprising at all the Spacey directed this. Look at a lot of films that he has starred in. In many of them, there's a lot of dialogue and free range among the actors. So it isn't surprising at all, that this film is mostly dialogue, where the actors are given a lot of free reign. The only problem with that is that the actors aren't on top form. I like Fichtner and Sinise, but neither was that good. I did enjoy Dillon's performance though. I think he did a pretty good job overall.

The sad thing comes in that Albino Alligator should have been better. It's too predictable to be considered better than average. You can see the plot development with Mortensen's character coming the moment you lay eyes on him. As for the actual outcome, I liked the idea, but not so much the execution. .

So this is a slightly disappointing movie just because of all the talent that is involved and because it could have been so much more. But I got a certain amount of enjoyment out of it. While it may not be exceptional filmmaking, it's interesting filmmaking, and sometimes interesting is all you need.