Last night I felt the uncontrollable urge to watch a giant killer-crocodile movie. Since I always aim for the most obscure things I can find, I ended up watching a Thai flick named "Chorakhe", but that was so irredeemably awful that my hunger for big croc horror wasn't stilled yet. Enter "Alligator II: the Mutation", which was a lot of fun.
Perhaps I'm slightly biased because the Thai movie was so terrible, but I honestly don't think that "Alligator II" deserves the low rating and all the harshly negative reviews that it is getting around here. Obviously, this is a typical cash-in horror from the early 90s, and it certainly doesn't come close to the ingenious 1980 original, but it's great fun thanks to a couple of excellent casting choices, some good bloodshed moments, and the unscrupulous use of ancient creature-feature clichés!
In a non-specified medium-sized city, there's - for some undisclosed reason - a massive alligator living in the sewer system and the city center's pond. Due to the illegal dumping of toxic waste in the sewers, by the over-the-top and theatrically evil businessman Vincent Brown, the animal grew to a giant size and started feeding on the local Latino population. Brown also intends to open a prestigious real-estate project around the pond, complete with a big carnival, and refuses to have the event cancelled by rumors about an alligator on the rampage. See what I mean with the clichés?
Joseph Bologna supposedly is the protagonist, as the wannabe unorthodox and comic relief copper, but the show gets stolen by pretty much the entire rest of the cast. Notably Steve Railsbeck (as the megalomaniacal Vincent Brown) and Richard Lynch (as a flamboyant hunter) are fantastic, and there are also B-movie queen Dee Wallace (sadly underused) and Brock Peters. The special effects are lousy, though, and that is probably why "Alligator II" is unmemorable and largely unloved. The animal itself receives a fair amount of screen time, but the munching and chewing he does never gets shown properly! He allegedly uses homeless people as toothpicks, but we don't get to see it. That's why the eighties were better on all levels!
Perhaps I'm slightly biased because the Thai movie was so terrible, but I honestly don't think that "Alligator II" deserves the low rating and all the harshly negative reviews that it is getting around here. Obviously, this is a typical cash-in horror from the early 90s, and it certainly doesn't come close to the ingenious 1980 original, but it's great fun thanks to a couple of excellent casting choices, some good bloodshed moments, and the unscrupulous use of ancient creature-feature clichés!
In a non-specified medium-sized city, there's - for some undisclosed reason - a massive alligator living in the sewer system and the city center's pond. Due to the illegal dumping of toxic waste in the sewers, by the over-the-top and theatrically evil businessman Vincent Brown, the animal grew to a giant size and started feeding on the local Latino population. Brown also intends to open a prestigious real-estate project around the pond, complete with a big carnival, and refuses to have the event cancelled by rumors about an alligator on the rampage. See what I mean with the clichés?
Joseph Bologna supposedly is the protagonist, as the wannabe unorthodox and comic relief copper, but the show gets stolen by pretty much the entire rest of the cast. Notably Steve Railsbeck (as the megalomaniacal Vincent Brown) and Richard Lynch (as a flamboyant hunter) are fantastic, and there are also B-movie queen Dee Wallace (sadly underused) and Brock Peters. The special effects are lousy, though, and that is probably why "Alligator II" is unmemorable and largely unloved. The animal itself receives a fair amount of screen time, but the munching and chewing he does never gets shown properly! He allegedly uses homeless people as toothpicks, but we don't get to see it. That's why the eighties were better on all levels!