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LAKE PLACID (1999)

Directed by Steve Miner; written by David E. Kelley; director of photography, Daryn Okada; edited by Marshall Harvey; music by John Ottman; production designer, John Willett; creature effects by Stan Winston; produced by Kelley and Michael Pressman; released by Phoenix Pictures and 20th Century Fox. Running time: 88 minutes. Rated R (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). The rating represents a half-eaten diver, a couple of hearty croc battles and obscene language.

With: Bridget Fonda (Kelly Scott), Bill Pullman (Jack Wells), Oliver Platt (Hector Cyr), Brendan Gleeson (Sheriff Hank Keough), Betty White (Delores Bickerman) and Meredith Salenger (Deputy Sharon Gare).

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Review By Juanita Graves

The first thing I  thought of in scripting this summary was that the movie was entertaining and lots of fun to watch.

Pullman gets to realize a boyhood fantasy playing Game Warden Ranger Jack Wells who is trying to oversee the handling of a death at the local lake where a body was bitten in half. A paleontologist Kelly Scott (Bridget Fonda) shows up to help in the search but Jack (Bill Pullman) sees her as a pest who will get in the way of the investigation.

After being scorned by her boss boyfriend at the Museum, Kelly has a big attitude problem and soon alienates everybody especially Sheriff Keogh (Brendan Gleeson).

After the trio goes out to the site of the tragedy, a helicopter appears and lands with Hector Cyr (Oliver Platt) a rich guy who flies all over the world to swim with crocodiles. Hector and Sheriff Keough quickly dislike each other and each tries to outdo the other in sarcastic remarks. However, with all the sophisticated equipment brought in by Hector(Oliver Platt) they set out to track sounds of the creature. As luck would have it, sure enough, the creature from the deep overturns the boat and that leads into many other encounters with the crocodile.

Pullman and Fonda start out at odds with each other but a warning trend soon develops and Bill's soft smiles and tenderness wins her over. Sigh!

Another colorful character who makes this movie fun is Mrs. Bickerman (Betty White) who has some words in her vocabulary that would embarrass a sailor, uses one of her cows as a meal ticket, while another cow flies through the air like an acrobat hanging from a helicopter.

While various body parts including a "toe" are found on shore, the movie is in no way gruesome. I found it to be a humorous/horror comedy with tongue in cheek.

By the way, no cows were harmed in the making of this movie and they all are happily chewing their cuds as we speak.

Photographs

Bill and Bridget in their jammies! * Please click on the image to see larger black and white version.	Ranger Bill and the sheriff going crocodile hunting. * Please click on the image to see larger black and white version.	Bill and company defending themselves on the LA freeway.  Just kidding! * Please click on the image to see larger black and white version.
Park ranger Bill protecting the masses.  Let's go camping!	Worrying about the crocodile.	Time to get dressed! * Please click on the image to see larger black and white version.
David E. Kelley wants us to do what?  Sorry, I guess this is where they see the crocodile eaten by a bear.	Nice headshot of Ranger Bill.	Getting pointers from director Steve Miner.  Trivia alert.  Miner had a cameo as the pilot who flies Bridget into Maine. * Please click on the image to see larger black and white version.

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