What a wonderful adventure romance! This is a film that neither my husband, my teenage son, or myself can resist watching time after time, whenever it happens to be on TV.
The movie tells the tale of Mick Dundee, a charismatic adventurer from Walkabout Creek in the Australian outback, who ends up as a 'croc out of water' (as some reviewers have cleverly phrased it) in New York City. Naturally, there's a 'sheila' with him, a love interest in the form of beautiful blonde American journalist, Sue Charlton. The sparks fly between them, the chemistry cooks, and so on.
This movie of course is made solely by the legendary character of Mick Dundee, played to charming perfection by Paul Hogan, both in his native bush and also Big City settings. You'll be in stitches, you'll cheer for him, you'll be amazed at his adaptation of his unique Down Under bush survival skills to the streets of the Big Apple. The knife incident...what can I say? He displays an endearing innocence of the seedier aspects of Big City life, notably its drugs and prostitutes. But it's not only Mick's humour and charisma, this adventurer is a guy with integrity that would put most everyone, rural or urban, Australian or American, to shame.
The greatest supporting role here must surely go to Mick's bush buddy, Wally, who's basically 'all talk and no action', yet one of the most likable ever film characters.
The ending? I won't give it away, but it's a dilly, a dandy, and a doozy. Just one of the many reasons I can watch this great movie again and again. The first Crocodile Dundee sequel is equally entertaining, and though the second (Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles) doesn't quite measure up, I can never resist watching Mick in action.
