Metascore

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 24 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 16 Ratings

  • Starring: Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Oliver Platt
  • Summary: Its placid waters complement the pristine Maine wilderness it borders. This tranquil setting is probably the last place you'd expect a gruesome fatality. But then it's also the last place you?d expect to find a 30-foot, narrow-snouted, multi-toothed, reptilian of the species Crocodylus. An eating machine more commonly known as a crocodile. (20th Century Fox) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 24
  2. Negative: 12 out of 24
  1. Reviewed by: Andrew Collins
    80
    A straightforward camping-holiday nightmare, or a sly, ironic take on the same. It works deliciously as both.
  2. 60
    Comes in well under the ninety-minute mark, leaving no room for bombast or overkill.
  3. It's like a summer stock "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," with the proviso that occasionally a giant snaggle-tooth monster slobbers onstage and eats George or Martha.
  4. Reviewed by: Robert Koehler
    30
    To be sure, Kelley's Emmy-winning brand of off-kilter humor and cockeyed affection for rural folk is on display, but his attempt here to blend the citified angst of "Ally McBeal" (co-star Bridget Fonda was Kelley's first choice as that series' lead) with the countrified absurdisms of "Picket Fences," plus bits out of the Peter Benchley playbook, doesn't hold water.

See all 24 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 7
  2. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. MiguelB.
    8
    More fun than horror, with lots of hilarious banter between main characters. Should not be taken seriously, of course, but definitely more enjoyable than most movies in this genre. Expand
  2. WesleyE.
    7
    It's by no means a good movie... but the actors (if you can call them that) do poke some slight fun ath the subject, and the Big Croc itself kicks ass. Collapse
  3. I consider this a 'cult classic'. It's not quite "Citizen Kane", but it's excellent TV and popcorn fare. A local law enforcement officer is killed in a quite gruesome manner by some unknown creature (ok - not a spoiler, but: it's a crocodile), so the local sheriff calls in the Fish & Game department. Pullman shows up, along with a woman paleontologist, who's run into an office 'triangle' and been deported, so to speak, to check out a tooth found in the victim. Eventually, a well known crocodile expert enters the mix. Along the way, the four make quite a dysfunctional family, with Pullman and Fonda unable to take their platonic relationship to another level, while Platt (playing expert Hector Cyr) and Gleeson (playing the sheriff, Hank) are the two bickering brothers. Finally, to throw another wrench into the works, there's Betty White as Mrs. Bickerman, whose husband is dead (without any records being filed in the local courthouse, and no real explanation immediately coming). Eventually, it's confirmed that there's an enormous crocodile inhabiting the lake. The only question is whether to try and trap it, or destroy it). Pretty light fare, with a few 'shocking' scenes which may be a little bit too intense for very young children. A final note: stick around until the very end and you'll be slightly surprised. Expand
  4. 4
    It was just mediocre. Nothing more and nothing less. What kept it from being good was the comedic overtones and the corny dialogue. But the biggest problem was that there's a giant crocodile in a lake in a movie that's rated R and only 2 people get eaten in the 82 minute runtime! Expand

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