Steve Miner has quite the varied filmography, but he's arguably best known for being the man who served up the second and third (3D) instalment of the Friday The 13th movie series. Having also given us Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and House, he's quite the horror franchise guy. Lake Placid is a different beast from those films, but the mix of humour and thrills is not entirely removed from the playfulness that Miner has often had in his best work. And I would put this up there as some of his best work.
The story is quite simple. There seems to be a big beast that has made home in a large lake in Maine. This becomes obvious when the beast attacks someone scuba diving in the lake, biting them in half. Sheriff Hank Keough (Brendan Gleeson), Fish & Game Officer Jack Wells (Bill Pullman), and a paleontologist sent along from the big city, Kelly Scott (Bridget Fonda), all get to work trying to figure out what is hiding in the lake. Hector Cyr (Oliver Platt), an expert on mythology and crocodiles, thinks that he already knows.
A creature feature that decides to focus on the interaction between the characters, as well as plenty of humour, Lake Placid might be a bit tame for some (there's only one truly memorable death scene, and it's in the first few minutes of the film), but it's a lot of fun, doesn't outstay its welcome, and features some superb special effects work. The big croc looks fantastic throughout, and feels like a very real, physical, threat to anyone nearby.
Writer David E. Kelly goes for quirkiness, and is helped by the casting. Profanity always sounds better coming from Betty White, and she gets to deliver a couple of truly memorable lines here. While we get the standard meet-cute moments between Pullman and Fonda, the better relationship is the one between Gleeson and Platt, two men who immediately start off butting heads before starting to grudgingly admire one another.
When it comes to Gleeson and Platt, two men I enjoy seeing in anything, this gives them some great dialogue to spout, making it an easy film to recommend if you're fans of their work. Pullman is doing his fairly bland, but likeable, schtick, and that's fine for this, and Fonda gives yet another very enjoyable performance that makes me remember how disappointed I was when she seemed to suddenly disappear from movies. White, playing an old woman who lives lakeside, and who may know a bit more than she's letting on about any possible nearby crocodile, is a joy every time she's onscreen.
It may not be as good as the amazing Alligator, but Lake Placid can easily make a claim to be the best killer crocodile movie. And with a runtime of only 82 minutes, it's almost impossible for you to feel as if you've wasted your time on it, even if you somehow end up not enjoying it as much as I do.
8/10
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