Giant Animal Division: Lake Placid

I'm mad at all of you. Why didn't anyone tell me how awesome Lake Placid is?



OK, so I'm slightly culpable. I love giant animal movies including those that get heavy rotation on the Syfy channel. Even when they're terrible, at least there's going to be some carnage or ridiculousness. But Lake Placid isn't terrible. It's awesome and suspenseful and funny as hell. Absurdly, it has a Metacritic rating of 33. I don't know what people were expecting from a film about a GIANT CROCODILE IN MAINE.

I blame the pedigree of writer David E. Kelley. I'm sure critics were expecting some political commentary or insights into the human psyche or something (I'm actually not sure what they should expect as I've never watched any of his shows). And no, the movie doesn't have much to say about anything, but that doesn't mean it's any less of a movie. The dialogue is amazing, the attacks generated some highly amused audible responses from me (love the bear), and the plotting is a lot more sensical than most horror movies. I particularly enjoy Brendan Gleeson's reactions to everyone's sarcastic remarks to him. Actually, I enjoy everything revolving around Gleeson (even though his accent waivers constantly and I think the line "[his] origins [are] a mystery" is a reference to this fact) which includes his interactions with Oliver Platt.

Bridget Fonda accomplishes a remarkable feat in Lake Placid. She takes a role that in most hand would be shrill and obnoxious but makes it work. She's generally amusing and plays the extremes of the role very well. The biggest problem is that the romance between her and Bill Pullman is wholly unnecessary and poorly developed, especially since she recently was in hysterics about her lover/boss entering a relationship with her friend. The love angle is half-baked and drags the movie down every time it's brought to the forefront.

Steve Miner directs and his instincts are more suited to this material than the supernatural House (though I still love House). Also, he's had fifteen or so years work on his directorial approach. It's disappointing that he left the horror-comedy subgenre (or even just horror). His work outside of it nearly isn't as accomplished and he clearly has a knack.

Lake Placid is tons of fun and I believe signifies the start of Betty White's career into foul-mouthed old woman. I'll leave you with my favorite line and the one that stuck with me (I'd seen the ending of Lake Placid once a long time ago): "You can't take a cow by eminent domain!"