Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Review: Crocodile 2: Death Roll (2001)
Creature features tend to fall into one of two categories. Horror or Action/Adventure. Crocodile 2 is definitely the latter. Whereas Crocodile (2000) saw Tobe Hooper reemploy the formula he introduced in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), this in-name-only sequel is far more akin to the jungle adventures Anaconda (1997)and DNA (1997), with the scenario intensified by the presence of a human threat. In this tradition, Death Roll clearly is attempting to emulate the formula used most successfully in Stephen Sommers’ Deep Rising (1998).
In the tradition of Deep Rising and From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), this genre hybrid sees the efforts of a bunch of criminals thwarted by mother nature. Boarding a plane bound for Acapulco, a storm forces the pilot to abort the flight. Desperate, the criminals hijack the plane and send it to its doom. Exploiting weaknesses in airport security, pre-9/11, the thieves smuggle aboard weapons with laughable ease. Humorous in retrospect, this actually highlights the lack of attention to detail which results in the most criticism for films of this type.
For prolific production company Nu Image it is de rigueur to begin with a fierce action sequence. Extraneous to the story, the function of the opening gunfight is purely to establish tone. The conventions of the film quickly shift from action movie, to air disaster to monster movie while never losing cohesion. Director Gary Jones has played with genre combination before in his SF/horror movies Mosquito (1995)and Spiders (2000). Death Roll’s playful tone, embracing the B movie connotations of its title, the respectable standard of action choreography, editing and special effects, making this the most enjoyable of Nu Image’s creature feature series.
Stranded in an isolated Mexican swamp, the thieves hold survivors captive as they attempt to make their journey to safety. Unfortunately they have landed in the feeding ground of a ridiculously large crocodile. Well, you weren’t expecting a parrot were you? Meanwhile a plucky young heroine attempts to overcome the human and reptile threat to be united with her boyfriend.
Aside from previous creature features, I personally think the writers watched I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) a couple of times before sitting in front of the word processor. The parallel plot in which the boyfriend becomes aware of his girlfriend’s danger and sets out to find her has a sense of deja-vu. While the denouement is similarly a rip-off of the closing scene from Carrie (1976).
The interplay of elements of intertextual familiarity with the kind of flaws inherent in low budget films such as this means that there is never a dull moment for genre fans. Aside a typically unfamiliar cast , Martin Kove lends quality support doing his best Harrison Ford impersonation adding shades of Robert Shaw. These seamlessly unified aspects of performance perfectly reinforce what Gary Jones has tried to do with the film as a whole. Similarly echoing Treat Williams’s star turn in Deep Rising, Kove’s reinterpretation of Harrison Ford’s Han Solo persona echoes George Lucas’s own combination of genres in Star Wars (1977).
The exterior locations add undeniable production value and work to the strengths of the story and budget, those stage shot scenes definitely evoke the kind of creature features shot in the 1950s. While the cast and settings for the film are the United States and Acapulco, it is quite clear from the credits that this is a film made far beyond the fringes of Hollywood. Death Roll was shot in a studio in India, utilising a great number of local crew members.
To summarise this as Reservoir Dogs (1992) meets Jurassic Park (1993) is perhaps as appropriate a description as any for a film like this. The kind of flawed but fun B movie wherein the myriad intertextual familiarity is as much an incentive for hardcore fans as anything resembling quality. A modest amount of gore will please post-pub viewers of all ages, though I should point out a disappointing lack of nudity. Ultimately the success comes in the structure of contrasts. For example between the quality of the CGI plane crash and the explosion of a model helicopter, between Martin Kove’s performance and that of an “English” character, between the action and the horror. Each maintain the modest expectations the film needs to transgress expectation.
Creature features tend to fall into one of two categories. Horror or Action/Adventure. Crocodile 2 is definitely the latter. Whereas Crocodile (2000) saw Tobe Hooper reemploy the formula he introduced in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), this in-name-only sequel is far more akin to the jungle adventures Anaconda (1997)and DNA (1997), with the scenario intensified by the presence of a human threat. In this tradition, Death Roll clearly is attempting to emulate the formula used most successfully in Stephen Sommers’ Deep Rising (1998).
In the tradition of Deep Rising and From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), this genre hybrid sees the efforts of a bunch of criminals thwarted by mother nature. Boarding a plane bound for Acapulco, a storm forces the pilot to abort the flight. Desperate, the criminals hijack the plane and send it to its doom. Exploiting weaknesses in airport security, pre-9/11, the thieves smuggle aboard weapons with laughable ease. Humorous in retrospect, this actually highlights the lack of attention to detail which results in the most criticism for films of this type.
For prolific production company Nu Image it is de rigueur to begin with a fierce action sequence. Extraneous to the story, the function of the opening gunfight is purely to establish tone. The conventions of the film quickly shift from action movie, to air disaster to monster movie while never losing cohesion. Director Gary Jones has played with genre combination before in his SF/horror movies Mosquito (1995)and Spiders (2000). Death Roll’s playful tone, embracing the B movie connotations of its title, the respectable standard of action choreography, editing and special effects, making this the most enjoyable of Nu Image’s creature feature series.
Stranded in an isolated Mexican swamp, the thieves hold survivors captive as they attempt to make their journey to safety. Unfortunately they have landed in the feeding ground of a ridiculously large crocodile. Well, you weren’t expecting a parrot were you? Meanwhile a plucky young heroine attempts to overcome the human and reptile threat to be united with her boyfriend.
Aside from previous creature features, I personally think the writers watched I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) a couple of times before sitting in front of the word processor. The parallel plot in which the boyfriend becomes aware of his girlfriend’s danger and sets out to find her has a sense of deja-vu. While the denouement is similarly a rip-off of the closing scene from Carrie (1976).
The interplay of elements of intertextual familiarity with the kind of flaws inherent in low budget films such as this means that there is never a dull moment for genre fans. Aside a typically unfamiliar cast , Martin Kove lends quality support doing his best Harrison Ford impersonation adding shades of Robert Shaw. These seamlessly unified aspects of performance perfectly reinforce what Gary Jones has tried to do with the film as a whole. Similarly echoing Treat Williams’s star turn in Deep Rising, Kove’s reinterpretation of Harrison Ford’s Han Solo persona echoes George Lucas’s own combination of genres in Star Wars (1977).
The exterior locations add undeniable production value and work to the strengths of the story and budget, those stage shot scenes definitely evoke the kind of creature features shot in the 1950s. While the cast and settings for the film are the United States and Acapulco, it is quite clear from the credits that this is a film made far beyond the fringes of Hollywood. Death Roll was shot in a studio in India, utilising a great number of local crew members.
To summarise this as Reservoir Dogs (1992) meets Jurassic Park (1993) is perhaps as appropriate a description as any for a film like this. The kind of flawed but fun B movie wherein the myriad intertextual familiarity is as much an incentive for hardcore fans as anything resembling quality. A modest amount of gore will please post-pub viewers of all ages, though I should point out a disappointing lack of nudity. Ultimately the success comes in the structure of contrasts. For example between the quality of the CGI plane crash and the explosion of a model helicopter, between Martin Kove’s performance and that of an “English” character, between the action and the horror. Each maintain the modest expectations the film needs to transgress expectation.
# posted by Richard Hawes @ 1:06 AM 
