ALL SCI-FI

[Bogmeister]

________ Lake Placid (1999) - Theatrical Trailer


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This is an amusing take on the low-budget monster movies of the seventies and all those old eco-terror fright films. This is also a kind of follow-up to the Alligator movies of the early eighties.

It wasn't a big success, maybe due to the title — potential viewers may think it's a documentary about a lake — but it is consistently humorous, thanks to a good cast. Bridget Fonda, as a paleontologist sent to investigate a sudden death by large teeth on the lake in question, is purposely irritating in the 'fish out of water' role. She reveals a surprising knack for comedy, the city girl from New Yawk stuck in the forest.

Oliver Platt and Brendan Gleeson squabble like two long-separated overweight brothers as, respectively, eccentric millionaire and sheriff. Platt is always funny (here he has a case of monster worship for the croc), and Gleeson almost matches him here (he has to hide his Irish accent).

Bill Pullman makes less of an impression, underplaying as the guy in charge. Betty White is a hoot as the foul-mouthed local old lady with a secret.

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The monster in question (a 30-foot croc) stays out of sight for the first half-hour, and when it does appear, it's strangely unsurprising, despite the suddenness. It's as if we've seen so many of these "large animal" pictures by this point, this is just another one in a long line.

It's a weird money shot as well, involving a growling bear, and it is not as effective as it should be. Thanks to modern special FX, computer and otherwise, the croc is better realized than those of 20 years earlier.

But that could be a problem: integrated into the wilderness like any other animal, there's nothing about the creature to inspire awe or real terror, despite its size. It's just a big crocodile, after all.

Like Anaconda, this inspired a slew of big croc and alligator movies for the Sci-Fi Channel. Speaking of which, a sequel came out on the SF channel in late April, 2007.

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10

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Placid Trivia: besides the first sequel in 2007, there was Lake Placid 3 in 2010 and Lake Placid the Final Chapter in 2012. The actual name of the lake is Black Lake; it was intended to be named Placid in the history of the film's story but never was for various reasons...

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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

[Bud Brewster]

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IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production.
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~ Sheriff Keough's "big gun" was a fake gun made specifically as a prop for this movie. They even gave it a fake name, calling it a "Light Weight Forward Area Air Device Unit" which itself is a pretty good parody of military jargon. It was not an M-203 grenade launcher, which fires 40mm grenades. The "grenades" shown with the gun were a good deal smaller than 40mm.

Note from me: With all the actual weaponry they could have used, I wonder why they felt the need to make a prop.

~ The largest crocodile in captivity was Lolong who measured 6.17m (20ft 3in) when he died from pneumonia in February 2013 in the Philippines. The crocodile depicted in the movie is over twice as long

Note from me: Although it's a myth that crocodiles never stop growing, it is true they don't age biologically! When they die it's usually due to accidents, disease, predation, or starvation.

~ Betty White's character is told that PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) would be interested to learn of her alleged mistreatment of her cows. In reality, White is a major on-air spokeswoman for PETA.

Note from me: Miss White's character was one very nutty lady, feeding cows to her friend, the giant crocodile!

~ Stan Winston and his crew created Lake Placid's crocodile as a full-size animatronic puppet -- complete with moving head and tail and snapping jaws -- that would function underwater.

The crocodile as CGI or animatronic has about 3 minutes and 43 seconds of screentime.

Note from me: Naturally most of the really rousing action scenes were CGI , like certain parts of the two videos below. But Winston's team did a fine job, as shown both clips, even though the second one is supposedly a CGI helicopter, according to the next trivia item.

______________ Lake Placid - Come and Get It


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_________ Crocodile vs. Helicopter - Lake Placid


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~ In addition to the crocodile itself, extensive CG water work was done as the crocodile dives in and out of the lake. One key scene involves a CG helicopter that the crocodile attacks as it sits on the surface of the water.

Note from me: Like I said above, the money shots are all CGI.

~ To test the crocodile puppet's efficacy in water, the SWS crew took it up to Castaic Lake, in the Los Angeles National Forest, prior to painting it, and dropped it in.

"That thing actually swam," mechanic to Richard Landon remarked. "Its head left/right and tail left/right functionalities were enough to make it propel itself through the water."

To gain greater swimming speed during filming, the crocodile was most often attached to a wire and pulled through the water by boat.

"We went into this show with the full knowledge that water always wins," said Richard Landon, who led the mechanical crocodile design team. "That has become my personal motto: Water Always Wins. Water will always break something. Water is the universal solvent. Superglue breaks down in it. Urethane breaks down in it. Paint breaks down in it. Water is a nightmare — and we were in it for a full six months on this show."

Note from me: "Be the life of the party by having one of our "mecha-diles" in your pool or private lake. Want to discourage trespassing skinny dippers? These life-like robotic reptiles will even scare the pants off the swimmers who AREN'T naked! Order now and get two for the price of one."

~ Hector jokes at one point that the crocodile was flushed down the toilet by some "a*shole" in Hong Kong, a reference to the film Alligator (1980), in which the little girl Marissas father flushes a baby alligator down the toilet and it grows into a behemoth in the sewer.

Note from me: I Googled the question, "Do crocodiles and alligators really live in sewers?" and got this.

"Yes, they really have found alligators in the New York sewer system. Urban legends are the modern world's answer to fairy tales. These beasts, so the stories go, were brought back to the city by rich New York families who'd made some poor buying decisions while on vacation in Florida."
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]