Croc (2007) (TV)

User Rating:

3.3/10   

Director:

Stewart Raffill

Writer (WGA):

Ken Solarz (written by)

Release Date:

20 September 2007 (UK)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot:

A large man-eating crocodile terrorizes tourists and locals near Krabi, in Thailand. Michael Madsen plays a hunter stalking the immense reptile...

Plot Keywords:

Crocodile | Thailand | Eaten Alive | Boy Eaten | Swimming Pool

US TV Schedule:

Sat. July 25

11:00 AM

SYFY

Cast

Michael Madsen	...	Croc Hawkins
Peter Tuinstra	...	Jack McQuade
Sherry Phungprasert	...	Evelyn Namawong
Elizabeth Healey	...	Allison
Scott Hazell	...	Theo
Tawon Saetang	...	Andy Konsong Jr.
Wasan Junsook	...	'Cao' Konsong Sr.
Jack Prinya	...	Detective Sergeant Dang
Duangduean Kumphasee	...	Chompoo
David Asavanond	...	Som
Amy Lackgren	...	Sunee
Nophand Boonyai	...	Corporal Leu
Pim Yensuk	...	Kanya
Elizabeth Lackgren	...	Anoon
Wattana Kanchanasatit	...	Kip

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:Unrated (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

Thailand

Company:

Thai Occidental Productions

Average Sci-Fi Channel Creature Feature

"Croc" is a rather run-of-the-mill Sci-Fi Channel creature feature.

**SPOILERS**

Working in Thailand, zoo-keeper Jack, (Peter Tuinstra) and his brother Theo, (Scott Hazell) are shocked when local developer Kama, (Sawit Prasertphan) suspects that a crocodile has escaped from the zoo and is loose in the wild. The accusations make owner Allison, (Elizabeth Healey) appalled, but soon locals start turning up dead around the area, forcing them to accept that the crocodile is loose. Going out with Evelyn Namwong, (Sherry Phungrasert) a sympathizer, to try to capture it only leads to failure, and soon it turns it's attention to more locals and tourists. When croc hunter Hawkins, (Michael Madsen) arrives to help out, they find that the crocodile won't go down easily and they try to bring it down before it can continue it's rampage.

The Good News: This one here is a pretty sub-standard creature feature. The fact that this one decides to switch the locale to Thailand makes it a nice change of pace. The mystery about the Orient does have some nice few moments in there. There's a really great way to bring up the local flavor and colors, and by being there, it adds to those nicely to the film. There's a couple of really good kills in here that provide most of the film's blood and gore. There's a great wound across the waist as it bites around the victim, a gruesome chomping on a badly bitten and chewed in half around the waist, having a limb ripped off while the croc is going for it's death-roll, on is dragged away in a trail of blood and several more that are jumped on and viciously torn to pieces in the blood-soaked water. There's several more in here, and these are pretty fun scenes as well. It even has a really great scene where it attacks a family house by launching up from underneath the floor and swinging around viciously, which is really fun and comes the closest to getting some excitement in it. The only other good part is that of the big action scene to get rid of the creature. The fact that it's held inside a large cave really helps, as there's a pretty good amount of suspense from the setting and the others around the place, there's a pretty imaginative set of traps to capture it and several other big factors to make these pretty entertaining. These here are the film's good points.

The Bad News: This here doesn't have all that many flaws, but they are there. One of the only points is that, as usual, the crocodile is completely CGI and doesn't look even the slightest bit real. It's not that it looks off or unrealistic, as the look is remarkably close to what they're supposed to be, but it's simply the fact that the tone and appearance of the creature is quite obviously not there. It's a bit distracting to see that the main threat of the film isn't there, and as it's so easily apparent of this, there's very little confusion about whether or not the effects are CGI . It's actually impossible to feel any threat of the croc due to this state, which is just a common problem that so many similar films have. The only other factor with this is the really jumbled narrative. This one has way too many scenes with no croc action, and by going in this route, it also exposes the fact that the attacks themselves weren't that spectacular. This one decides to concentrate most of the time on simply ambushing victims rather than actually doing anything else, and the long time in-between them is something that results in a really long period of time where there's nothing going on due to the really liberal pace between the kills. Beyond these, this is an enjoyable film, but they will make it hard for some to get into the film.

The Final Verdict: While it's like any ordinary creature feature, this one is still not that bad in the long run. This one is simply like all the others, and is rather like the majority of films there, and if they can get around the CGI-ness of the creature, this is a decent film that all fans of the style will enjoy.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language