Lake Placid [2000] [DVD]

A remote lake in Maine has become the scene of the grizzly death of an underwater Beaver researcher. (See how camp it is!) When the diver's body (well half of it anyway) is recovered, a post mortem reveals a tooth that has been lodged in the remains. New York museum professor Kelly Scott (Bridget Fonda) takes a look and decides it is the tooth of a reptile and vows to return to Maine to make further investigations.

This is much to the chagrin of local Sheriff Hank Keough (Brendan Gleeson) and fish inspector Jack Wells (Bill Pullman). What makes these two official's job even more difficult is the arrival on the scene of millionaire crocodile lover Hector Cyr (Oliver Platt) who seems more intent on saving the monstrous reptile than clearing the lake of the danger it represents. Perhaps the key to it all lies with the only inhabitant of anywhere near the lake, aged grey haired Delores Bickerman (Betty White) who lashes the forces of authority with the full length of her tongue at every opportunity.

As I say the film really does work best when it doesn't take itself too seriously and it does a fantastic line is witty bitchy retorts between all the main leads. Some of the lines the characters come out with are pure pantomime and I wondered at times how they all kept straight faces. The casts are obviously having a great time with the film and it's nice to see them all enjoying hamming it up to the limit.

Where the film doesn't operate so well therefore are in the supposed thrilling sequences, staring the 30 foot rubber croc. Whilst the special effects aren't awful, they are less than what modern films have made us expect.

All in all, this is an entertaining piece of throwaway cinema, and at only just an hour and twenty minutes long, it never outstays its welcome. Good Fun!