ALLIGATOR
German Titles:
Der Horror-Alligator / Der Killer-Alligator
USA, 1980
Director: Lewis Teague
8/10
Wiki ~ Imdb
German Titles:
Der Horror-Alligator / Der Killer-Alligator
USA, 1980
Director: Lewis Teague
8/10
A huge childhood favorite and still one oy my personal animal-horror alltime favorites: the wonderfully entertaining "Alligator", one of the best croc-shockers ever made and also one of the very few "Jaws"-ripoffs that are actually good.
Lewis Teague ("Cujo", "Cat's Eye"), one of the most underrated genre directors of all time, and prolific screenwriter / director John Sayles ("Piranha", "The Howling") created a fabulous creature-feature full of wit and humor, full of thrills and tension, full of nice characters and memorable scenes.
The cast is excellent and every single actor delivers a fine performance, especially Robert Forster as cool police officer, Robin Riker as cute reptile expert, Michael V. Gazzo as hilarious police chief and Bart Braverman as obnoxious reporter.
There's a high amount of wonderfully photographed and stunningly atmospheric scenes in the sewers of L.A. (kudos to cinematographer Joseph Mangine and set decorator Cyd Smyllie), and the low-budget special effects look surprisingly great.
Highlights
The guy with the radio-bomb, the red-coloured dream sequence, the car on the manhole cover, the "Jaws"-like underwater POV shots, and, of course, all the ace gator-attacks. I adore the scenes where it breaks out of the sewer, or the sequence where it runs amok at a garden party.
Best of all: the gory scene where a little boy falls into a swimming pool and gets chomped - fun! :)
A delightful little 80s gem, highly satisfying.
Wiki ~ Imdb
ALLIGATOR II: THE MUTATION
German Titles:
Alligator II - Die Mutation / Alligator II - Die Mörderbestie beißt wieder zu
USA, 1991
Director: Jon Hess
2/10
German Titles:
Alligator II - Die Mutation / Alligator II - Die Mörderbestie beißt wieder zu
USA, 1991
Director: Jon Hess
2/10
A frustratingly bad, incredibly unoriginal and completely unnecessary in-name-only sequel that desperately tries to be as entertaining as "Alligator" but fails so hard, it's laughable.
All the sub-par actors playing uninteresting actors who think they're funny (they're NOT), all the lousy dialogue, all the unbelievably boring scenes, all the totally predictable plot points, the annoying synth score, the unimaginative camera work, the awful-looking effects, the lame croc attacks, the absymally poor climax, the recycled footage from the first part, the sewers that look like swamps for no apparent reason... BLEH!
All the sub-par actors playing uninteresting actors who think they're funny (they're NOT), all the lousy dialogue, all the unbelievably boring scenes, all the totally predictable plot points, the annoying synth score, the unimaginative camera work, the awful-looking effects, the lame croc attacks, the absymally poor climax, the recycled footage from the first part, the sewers that look like swamps for no apparent reason... BLEH!
Posts
I love the first movie, and I remember liking the second, actually - gave it a good review when it was a new release in my movie review newsletter - I remember liking Joseph Bologna and getting to see Richard Lynch in a rare good guy role - compared to the first one the second isn't much - but comparing the second to the myriad Syuh-Fyuh channel movies trying to be just like it - doesn't seem so bad...right?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I hated it so much because I watched it back to back with the first part - yet, I remember I saw it a couple of years ago and I already hated it back then.
DeleteSyFy croc schlock is mostly bad, but IMO Lake Placid 3 was a slightly better shitfest than Alligator II. You see, I really don't like it :)
Part one looks like a hoot of a good time! I better add this to my watch list!
ReplyDeleteWatch it Kai, you will love it!
DeleteI remember jumping up and down buggin' the hell out of my mom to take me to see ALLIGATOR back then. She never did, but it didn't matter as it was on TV not long after and became the biggest moneymaking independent feature on Network TV at that time. The sequel was originally supposed to have been a TV movie as ABC wanted to see if they could recapture the success of the earlier movie. I don't recall what happened why that fell through, though. I remember learning of it coming out on dvd and rushing down to the vid store to rent a copy of it and being SSSOOOOOOOO disappointed. I'd have to dig out the Fango interview with the director, but he did do some other movie made for TV monster movie from the same year called NOT OF THIS WORLD. I never saw it, but the monster looked like a tree with a crocodile head from the photo I saw of it.
ReplyDeleteALLIGATOR is awesome and apparently, another movie bearing that title was announced around 1976 with an amazing poster design. I am not sure if that film ended up as something else, or was just another movie that got announced and never came to fruition.
Well, whatever happened to that sequel... it doesn't matter as it is plain awful. Director Hess' career wasn't that spectacular either: the Dean Koontz adaptation WATCHERS (which spawned three sequels), a few made-for-TV films and some lousy action flicks.
DeleteThe original is really, really awesome, I've seen my fair share of alligator movies and next to BLACK WATER and ROGUE, this one's definitely the best.
Hm, do you mean that one from Sergio Martino?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079156/
I'd have to find the ad again. Unless it was a work in progress for a few years, I'm guessing it was something else? If it became a different movie, I wouldn't know what it was. The Martino film, to my knowledge wasn't released theatrically here, but straight to television; which was where I first saw it on the Late Movie as THE GREAT ALLIGATOR. There was also a Thai film about a seriously giant reptile entitled CROCODILE from 1979. A horrible movie, but had one helluva poster design.
ReplyDeleteHeard of both, but haven't seen them.
ReplyDeleteThere was another Thai crocodile flick entitled CROCODILE: the 1980 CHORAKHE.
Plus: two horrid 00s flicks, Tobe Hooper's CROCODILE and the super-terrible South-African BLOOD SURF (a.k.a Krocodylus a.k.a Crocodile a.k.a Who Cares?)
That other Thai one is a sequel if I remember right. There's also a CROCODILE 2: DEATH ROLL, I think is the name of it (sequel to the Hooper film). This ad was from 1976 so it could be anything. And back then, there were LOTS of movies that were announced, had posters made for them, etc, that never got made. Yeah that BLOOD SURF was pretty bad. I was hyped for it too as the photos looked good and Anthony Hickox was behind it, so I expected it to be good, but like you, was let down. The SyFy Channel has pretty much ruined the killer animal genre, imo.
ReplyDeleteOmfg, there's a sequel to Hooper's trainwreck? WHY?? :)
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, I have no idea about all these posters for never-made posters. Do you mean they made posters for some non-existing movies in hope that someone will give them the money to make it? (I hope this sentence makes sense)
Yeah SyFy AND The Asylum completely ruined the killer animal genre. I mean, how many shark/snakes/croc movies did they produce in the last ten years? 60? 70? Maybe more? Gawd, it's insane.
Yes, AIP and other exploitation outfits used to do this. A poster (or even just a title) would be created for a movie with no script or cast or anything; just a design. The film would be pre-sold on that alone. Then they'd take it from there. I think some of those Asylum movies were made in this fashion.
ReplyDeleteAh ok, I understand.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Asylum and SyFy are both doing this regularly. I remember an article on the internet about SyFy's PIRANHAHACONDA long before there was a script. The article was about the "design" of the creature and, as far as I remember, an interview with some SyFy executive who said that they want to make a movie based on this creature design.