Lake Placid 3 and Not Feeding the Animals: A Movie Review

Director: G. E. Furst.

Writer: David Reed.

Lake Placid 3 is a film from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, which is moving to DVD later this month (October 26th). The film debuted on the SyFy channel August 21st and the first film in the series was created way back in 1999. The version reviewed here is the unrated copy with plenty of T & A, with the best performance coming from Yancy Butler (Kick-Ass) as the lout and part-time hunter, Reba. Betty White has long been forgotten in the first film and her replacements, a bunch of young twenty-somethings, are a poor, soon-to-be dead substitute. Not very cutting edge and not really family fair, Lake Placid 3 is just plain average.

The plot has not developed much from the first film and in this second sequel, several abnormally large crocodiles terrorize an usually complacent country populace. You would think after two large-scale croc' attacks the people would be ready for this one, but no complacency has set in. Soon we have one-dimensional characters practically running into the giant sized maws of these pre-historic characters, to half-hearted applause. Thankfully, a female hunter makes Lake Placid 3 not completely forgettable.

Michael Ironside, you are Canadian; what are you doing in this film? This is a question which could be posed to many of the actors, but even cast and crew need projects to keep the lights on. Only Butler, as mentioned above, fully utilizes her role and her character can be described as "surly and extra surly" (Wonder, Dread Central). Her highly skilled ability to curse and sexually harass the local young men is only outdone by her sense for killing man-eating crocs'. Several other characters do not break out of the box of bimbo, geek, or ass&%^$ long enough to make a difference. However, Ironside as the Sherriff, does get in an "oh my God!" before being turned into lunch meat.

There is not really a point in plumbing the depths of this film as Lake Placid 3 is mostly shallow cinema, with the conclusion threatening a further sequel. Sure there is the mandatory eye candy: "there's the usual assortment of attractive college kids" (Wonder), a few CGI enhanced kills, and a whiny kid, but what about moving the first film forward in some way, or take the crocs' to New York City. Even Jason from Friday the 13th went to space once! Something needs to change to qualify a sequel, but unfortunately with SyFy's low standards, the possibility of a further sequel is looming like your next phone bill.

Best to look for this one as a re-run on the SyFy than paying the full DVD price of $24.96 - but hey this reviewer is not the final authority on giant croc' movies. So you may want to seek out other reviews before making any purchasing decisions. Showing on home video formats on October 26th, this reviewer has done his job by giving readers a much deserved warning, not to go to the lake.

Plot/story/believability: 5 (has the origins of these green monsters been given a source?).
Characters/action/interaction: 6 (the crocs' do bring events to a conclusion quickly and the short ninety-six minute runtime is promising, did I mention Butler?).

Overall: 5.5 out of 10 (if you are going to make a film push the viewer's boundaries or expectations in some way).

An in-depth and hilarious review is available from the Foy Wonder at Dread Central:

http://www.dreadcentral.com/reviews/lake-placid-3-2010

Cast and crew details are available on this film at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/catalog/catalogDetail_DVD043396333451.html