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Lake Placid (Widescreen Edition)

Lake Placid (Widescreen Edition)

List Price: $9.98
Your Price: $9.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lake not-so- placid
Review: Monster movies like this are always fun, and this, rather than the summer movie it was pitted against (Deep Blue Sea) is the superior one, with a sharp, witty script, great performances from Bridget Fonda and Oliver Platt, and awesome special effects with effects maestro Stan Winston's animatronic crocodile.

Like Jaws, the added humour lets the film become more than what the genre's limitations generally allow. And while the slender running time near the end creates an anti-climax, the open ending leaves the possibility of an even bigger, and possibly better sequel. Regardless, Lake Placid has what most monster movies don't: brains.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I would have rather watched a pauly shore movie
Review: this was one of the worst movies i have ever seen. i was expecting a good blood and gore movie. but i get this crap about betty white taking care of a big aligator. dont waste your time with this movie unless you want a good laugh or you are in the mood to throw up. the best part was the credits. the movie would have been better if bill pullman was eaten. Ooh and if you have seen the movie already, they better not make a sequel. because the end hints to one. and that will be the day that hollywood will not be able to sink any lower

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Horror comedy is good escapist emtertainment
Review: Beautiful Lake Placid's newest resident is causing quite a stir. It's thirty feet long, sports scores of razor sharp teeth, and eats whatever it pleases. It's presence becomes known when it adds the local residents to the menu. This once tranquil lake in Maine is now home to a crocodile. You may be thinking that this is highly unlikely. Yet, despite this utterly absurd premise - or, perhaps, because of it - Lake Placid is a lot of fun. It works as a horror movie, and it works as a comedy.

One enjoyable thing about the movie is that it doesn't give us a lot of pseudoscientific hogwash as to why there is a crocodile living happily in Maine. The film's characters have no idea why it is there. They only know it would be best if it left. I also liked that this creature doesn't spend its time stalking the cast. It's dangerous because it's awfully big and it eats accordingly. But it doesn't bear mankind a grudge, and it isn't some symbol of evil. What is frightening about it is not what it is, but where it is. In America, we have annihilated or contained almost every dangerous animal. Big predators are creatures we enjoy watching stomping around on The Discovery Channel. For most of us, they might as well live on another planet. So, what if you walked into your back yard and encountered something large, fast and hungry? Would you stand a chance?

The cast is great and looks as though they had a wonderful time making this movie. Bridget Fonda plays Kelly Scott, a paleontologist who is sent from a big city museum. In truth, her boss needed for her to get out of town. Kelly isn't pleased to be stuck in a backwoods New England town, and she quickly alienates Sheriff Hawk [Brendan Gleeson]. Soon, Jack Wells [Bill Paxton] arrives from the Game and Fish commission, and the trio sets out to investigate the lake. They are soon joined by Hector Cyr [Oliver Platt], an eccentric crocodile expert, who proves to be one of the film's funniest character. Along the way, they encounter the lakeshore's only human resident. She's Mrs. Bickerman [Betty White], and she's mad as a hatter. She thinks the group should just leave things the way they are.

Lake Placid is played for laughs, but it can also make you jump. It can be intense. In one scene, Hector Cyr is in the water. He turns around, and the creature is not more than five feet away. They are literally face to face. In another, Kelly is thrown out of a boat into the water. Here, the problem is that neither she nor we can see the beast. After each such scene, we get another round of laughs. The humor and the terror play off each other nicely.

This is not great moviemaking, but it is great escapist entertainment for those who enjoy this kind of thing. So many bad horror movies have been made that I think most people go into them expecting to be disappointed. For once, I wasn't.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Horrifyingly stupid horror movie
Review: Oddly, "Lake Placid" was written by the same screenwriter of the bad "Ally McBeal" and the stuffy "The Practice," David E. Kelley. But this time, he's gone way over the top in writing a blantantly stupid horror/comedy that becomes increasingly stupid and gory along the way.

As you know, this about a giant crocodile living in a Maine lake, chomping on anything (and anyone) that unfortunately lands or goes swimming in the fittingly named "Lake Placid." A game warden, a palentologist and others go to this lake to stop the croc for good.

"Lake Placid" is screamingly stupid, with no real scares or even some comedy, as this atrocious script by David E. Kelley proves. It's horrifyingly bad to not be campy fun. As in typical monster movies, a lot of gore and little scares go into this anemic script, while John Landis's superb monster movie, "An American Werewolf In London" outlives it by 200%.

It's enough to make "Ally McBeal" and "The Practice" seem good by comparison, and this goes along with the 1997 "An American Werewolf In Paris" as one of the gross-out horror farces of the '90s. Avoid it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Shocking Surprise
Review: I had been avoiding this movie because I love good horror films and this movie looked stupid. One boring afternoon, while channel surfing, I tuned to this movie and was shocked to discover that this movie was a riot. Between, and sometimes during, the gratuitously graphic gore was a multi-layered black-comedy, filled with humorously absurd yet endearing characters. I immediatly bought the DVD and now my friends love this silly movie too.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WHAT A HOWLER!
Review: This is one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time, and even though it's supposed to be a "horror" movie, I think some people missed the point. David Kelley's incredible black humor buoys the whocares plot; the alligator or is upstaged by the actors, for once. From the initial explanation for the name of the lake (which is NOT Lake Placid) is hilarious. I guess Kelley felt a movie named "Black Lake" wouldn't draw as much attention. Anyway, he assembled a great cast, and gives them such unusual and fun dialogue. Bridget Fonda is great as the paleontoligist who is sent off to Maine to examine a tooth; the true New Yorker, she can't tolerate mosquitoes, ticks, or snakes. Oliver Platt goes over the edge in his role as the millionaire crocodile hunter, and has as much fun as I did. Bill Pullman for once gets to play the straight man and if he looks bored, who cares? Especially with the wonderful addition of Irishman Brendan Gleeson as the sheriff. He has some great bantering with both Platt and Fonda. Betty White proves to be a golden girl still as she chews up the scenery in her brief, but memorable, screen time. The profanities coming out of this long-cherished "sweetie" are so unique, they're not the least bit offensive.
The special effects are mundane, and the music is a hopefully intended rip-off of John Williams' "Jaws" score, but "Lake Placid" made me laugh so much I had to give it the highest rating! That's what entertainment is all about!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Chomping Good
Review: I really liked this movie. It was a great blend of suspense and humor. The rapport between some of the movie's characters was great and kept me laughing while the scary parts were done very well. I am a big fan of 'Jaws' and tho this was not quite as good, it was still very enjoyable and a very good movie.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: WHAT HAPPENED STEVE MINER???
Review: In my book, Steve Miner is on the Top 10 list of best slasher movie directors, number 1 or close to it. But this [stinks]... Each type of movie I am about to see I try to get in the mood for the genre. I got in the slasher mood for this one, and thought it would be a REALLY GOOD slasher, looking at Miner's past movies like Friday the 13th Part 3, which was an instant slasher classic.

But this is anything but that. In the creature-feature slasher this was sopposed to be, I was patiently waiting for a massacre at the end. But NOOO. It had to roll down the B-movie road.

Bill Pullman is cool, and should kill his agent. Heck, Oliver Platt and Bridget Fonda should kill their agents to! The movie is rather funny though, but it would be better if they had balanced the comedy and the killcounts, then it wouldn't be this bad slasher comedy that it came to be.

Good humor cannot save this yarn alone. More lenghth and a higher horror use could have saved this one. Basically, this is a rip off of Andaconda and Deep Blue Sea. The front cover is just like that of Deep Blue Sea, a woman and a horrific creature from the movie! On a final note, get DEEP BLUE SEA instead of THIS.

1 out of 4 stars

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: it's funny!
Review: I wasn't sure if I wanted to see this movie for fear it would be just blood and guts. I took a chance and laughed my way through most the movie, thanks to Oliver Platt (one of a kind funny man) and Brendan Gleeson, the pair worked very well together and made this movie one that I could watch over and over again. I didn't care for a few gross parts but other than that this film is very funny.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not all that bad!
Review: Lake Placid is the tale of a huge preistoric crocdile hunting for more than fish is a peaceful Maine lake. After a diver is grisly murdered a team of wild life protectors, local sherrif, debuties and a woman from a natral histoy musem go to investigate. As thy arrive they are joinded by a man who insits the animal is croc. And so the adventure begins. The only down parts to this movie is one: Theres a little to much comedy for a movie about a killer croc. Two: You don't really see the croc till the end. Other wise this is a great movie with awsome special effects, characters you can relate to and SOME comidie that fits in. This movie kinda bomed in theaters (I can't understand why!) but it's raelly a great movie and even better on DVD! Lake Placid is a great ride.


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