Killer Crocodile

"Damn Croc"

STORY/HISTORY

Fabrizio De Angelis and Dardano Sacchetti write this movie about a monster crocodile under the aliases Larry Ludlum and David Parker Jr. De Angelis directs this movie in 1988 and it doesn't do good box office business. What a shocker considering the movie is shallow, light on the gore and action scenes (except the awesome ending), and quite a snooze. Any movie you find yourself falling asleep in the middle of the day to has some issues. Its not all bad though-a few scenes are pretty good (violent), but alas, the movie is a far cry from a classic. The story is your basic fare containing some commentary on pollution where the croc grows to enormous proportions due to chemical waste dumping in the swamp. All the clichés are present: the young idealistic hero, a payed off police guy thing, and your quintessential rich guy who has no regard for the environment or any of the townsfolk who inhabit the area where he dumps toxic waste. Sound familiar? As I watched this movie, it felt like a live action Scooby-Doo at times, and I kid you not, the police guy even calls the hero and his group of environmental protectionaries "Damn fool kids". Is this for real? On the other hand, Gianetto Di Rossi (of Zombie and Nights of Terror fame) puts on a good show with a cool looking croc and some nice gore thrown in, although rather sparsely, and Riz Ortolani (House on the Edge of the Park fame) manages to get by with a decent score although it can't touch his earlier work at all. So, what do we have here? A watchable film that could have been tremendous if given the proper nursing and not rushed out to cash in on the horror craze in the late 80's. This was not a good thing to have to watch, but how was the disc? A lot like the film.

VIDEO

The film is shown at 1.78:1 in a non-anamorphic print. The transfer is generally good with some grain tossed in to annoy us, and some overly dark night scenes. There was occasional artifacting, but it was kept to a minimum. The print was never really soft, exhibiting a fine amount of detail, and while the greens were rich and lush and the croc looked gorgeous, the reds were too vibrant in some instances. Bleeding bothers me terribly and is just due to poor mastering of the disc. More importantly, the print was dirty and could have benefited from a more refined restoration. Then again, how much work were they willing to pour into this film? Make no mistake here, this is the best this film will ever look, and with no plans to release it stateside, get it if you must.

AUDIO

Again, we get a DD 2.0 English language track that gets the job done, There are no problems or errors with the track and it does an ample job with all the screams and the croc roars. Also, Jap subs are included. Nothing new for Beam Entertainment here; same quality as on their previous discs, but then again, no complaints either.

EXTRAS

All we get is a long and boring trailer that detracts from the film. The picture quality is below the actual film contained on the disc, but that's to be expected. Like I've said in the past, what could they have dug up on this film? Your guess is as good as mine. Feels like deja-vu.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It's not a bad movie, but then again, it's not all that good either. A good transfer and the certain reluctance to bring this domestically push you toward the purchase, but the $70 price tag nudges you back again. I can't recommend this disc and unless you are a completist like myself; stay away as money can be better spent elsewhere. And please, don't even ask about the sequel!

DISC RATINGS

FILM-C- (for the ending)

VIDEO-B-

AUDIO-B+

EXTRAS-B

Review by Dolph Chiarino