Review of Lake Placid (1999) by Stuart K — 16 Apr 2013

Written and produced by David E. Kelley, who was riding high with the success on TV of Ally McBeal, and directed by Steve Miner (Forever Young (1992), Halloween H20 (1998) and Texas Rangers (2001)) This is a very silly and very enjoyable monster movie, it's a film which manages to be very funny and also have some good scares along the way, as well as a very game and spirited cast have great fun with this.

There's something unusual going on in the waters of Blake Lake in Lincoln County, Maine. Something is eating people and attacking anyone who ventures out onto the lake. Fish and Game officer Jack Wells (Bill Pullman), paleontologist Kelly Scott (Bridget Fonda) and crocodile enthusiast Hector Cyr (Oliver Platt) head out to Black Lake to investigate what's going on.

They're greeted by local Sheriff Hank Keough (Brendan Gleeson) who tells them what he knows, and they soon find out it's an enormous saltwater crocodile that been causing all the trouble, not helped by the fact that elderly local resident Delores Bickerman (Betty White) has been feeding it live cows.

It's a very enjoyable film, and it's a monster film which mixes scares, comedy and a touch of romance well. While it follows the conventions and cliches of what these films do, it doesn't stop it from being enjoyable, while Betty White nearly steals the film.