Lake Placid 2 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Lake Placid 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Stay out of Bulgarian waters

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf November 10, 2011

1999’s “Lake Placid” was a lark, a minor key of monster movie escapism from screenwriter David E. Kelley, taking a break from his ranch of network television legal dramas to stretch a few genre muscles. Director Steve Miner (“Friday the 13th: Part 2,” “House”) was right there to support Kelley’s vision, constructing a mildly diverting horror film with a pronounced sense of humor, a diverse cast, and a decent (for its time) display of visual effects. The feature was no box office king, but it made some monetary ripples, guaranteeing a cult following for years to come. A sequel was promised at the end of the picture, but seemed unlikely to materialize. Smash cut to 2007, and “Lake Placid 2” debuts as a Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie, dropping Kelley and the rest of the creative team to make a low-budget ruckus in Bulgaria, introducing inexperienced filmmakers to atrocious visual effects. Gone are the cheeky impulses and amusing thespian effort from the first round -- the sequel elects an unenthusiastic remake route, once again slipping into deep waters with a oversized crocodile who’s ready to feast.

Hoping to keep peace in his small Maine town, Sheriff James Riley (John Schneider) is hit with the confirmation of crocodile activity in a nearby lake, a reptilian invasion he thought was silenced for good years before. Called in to help is Emma Warner (Sarah LeFleur), a sympathetic officer of the Fish and Wildlife Department, who hopes to capture the killer croc and study its origins. When peaceful methods of detainment result in the death of Riley’s men, the squad turns to arrogant big game hunter Struthers (Sam McMurray) and his assistant, Sudanese warrior Ahmad (Joe Holt), to slaughter the marching threat. Also in the area is Riley’s estranged son Scott (Chad Michael Collins), who meets up with a pack of campers for a weekend of forest adventure, only to stumble upon the crocodile’s nest, soon facing an angry mother happy to munch on anything that dares step inside her lair.

Losing Kelley to unknown screenwriters Todd Hurvitz and Howie Miller, while Miner is replaced with David Flores, is the first indication that “Lake Placid 2” isn’t going to concern itself with a substantial creative push, instead attempting to rework the storyline of the original picture on a smaller scale. Once again, it’s a beleaguered sheriff trying to make sense of a crocodile attack, faced with expert opinion and dim-witted onlookers. The script even draws a connection to the original movie with the character of Sadie (Cloris Leachman), the sister of Delores (Betty White), who once again feels the need to take care of the croc community, feeding locals into the lake to satisfy her “children.” The “2” of the title is merely marketing decoration. Flores and his team are in reheat mode, crafting the same moviegoing experience as before, only without the cushion of a proper budget or, outside of Leachman, the distraction of star power.

Financial shortcomings hurt “Lake Placid 2” tremendously. It’s one thing to hire a bunch of unknown actors to fill undemanding survivor roles, but when the star of the show is a laughable visual effect that carries no consistency in scale or menace, it’s difficult to buy anything this feeble follow-up is selling. The CG crocodile is pure absurdity, resembling an animatic that was accidently approved for the final product, destroying the fear factor with its every appearance on screen. Considering the central appeal of the killer croc, it’s strange that more time and effort wasn’t devoted to nailing a realistic texture to the villain, developing the nightmare through carefully considered shots of the massive intruder. Flores just dumps crummy CGI everywhere in “Lake Placid 2,” relying much too heavily on the computer arts to cover for his, I assume, merciless shooting schedule. The feature looks just awful (seaplane animation is equally wretched and nonsensical), always unable to convince.

I suppose what’s so disconcerting about “Lake Placid 2” is its lack of sympathy. Not that a film this thin needs a pause to mourn the loss of lives; frankly, that type of sharp dramatic inhale would decimate whatever faint escapist charms this movie possesses. However, there’s nothing even remotely approaching an emotional display in the movie, which treats every death with a weirdly flippant attitude, as if nothing happened to characters seemingly in good standing with the community. It’s a dead-eyed series of reactions to outrageous attacks that chains the fun factor of this needless sequel to the ground. Instead of hitting a hysterical high with an enormous body count and paranoid performances, “Lake Placid 2” plays it too cool, practically asleep during a few key encounters. I’m sure the cast had no idea what form of visual effect would eventually be placed in front of them, but that’s no excuse for the general unresponsive tone of the effort, a zombified creative choice that comes to sink the picture with unintended laughs.

Lake Placid 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation here is merely satisfactory, lacking a crisp HD urge that sells the grotesqueries on display. "Lake Placid 2" is a basic cable production and looks it throughout, with the BD able to isolate differences in camera equipment and cinematographic skill (many shots are simply out of focus). Colors are satisfactory, giving a good sense of the murky water and nearby greenery, with hues strong enough to evoke the necessary feeling of remoteness, remaining stable. Bloodshed squirts a hearty red. Clarity is solid for most of the close-ups, supplying an appealing texture to the reactions and show of "unrated" skin. Detail lacks heft, but the nuances of the locations and costuming are easily viewed, and the hideous visual effects are preserved in all their glory, offered no low-res place to hide. Skintones are natural, while shadow detail is acceptable, losing clarity in dense woods and some low-light encounters.

Lake Placid 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix on "Lake Placid 2" holds to a subdued level of engagement, keeping in step with its television origins. More violent thrusts of sound effects and scoring come off tinny, striking a few shrill notes of intensity that are unpleasant. Dialogue exchanges are easily understood (an excess of lopping guarantees the broad pronunciation of every word), crisp yet unremarkable, without a significant weight to build a richer sense of drama. The verbal activity holds frontal, mixed satisfactorily with the active scoring, never swallowing exposition or overwhelming articulations of despair. Atmospherics are thickly produced but welcome, with aquatic excursions generating a sense of pressure in the surrounds, while beachside elements are properly represented. Directional activity isn't extreme, only jumping to attention when the monster croc wiggles into attack position. Low-end is sparse.

Lake Placid 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• "Sex, Guns, and Croc-N-Roll" (3:59, SD) is a BTS excursion that eschews talking heads to show the production in motion, mixing B-roll with movie clips to best reinforce the filmmaking toil. It's a lighthearted featurette, scored to light metal and fixated on a few on-set pranks, but a general sense of the workplace is conveyed without any interview intrusions. And for the curious, there's a few moments of VFX reveal, displaying how humans were able to wrestle with a digital creation.

• "Surviving a Crocodile Attack" (3:50, SD) merges film clips with text-based tips on how to keep away from reptilian attention. Although the featurette swears these helpful hints are legitimate, it's not exactly imparting hardcore survival cheats. For example, #3 on the list reads, "Stay out of Infested Waters." So THAT'S what I've been doing wrong all this time. Thanks, 20th Century Fox!

• "'Lake Placid 2:' The Gnawed Up Version" (9:05, SD) provides an edition of the film that fast-forwards through all the exposition and dramatics, slowing down to study nudity and violence. It's a useless supplement, considering most viewers will already be x10 their way through the feature anyway.

• A Trailer has not been included.

Lake Placid 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you've seen "Lake Placid," you've seen "Lake Placid 2," with a few turns in the crocodile backstory employed here to shake things up for our heroes. The rest is a limp, uninspired rehash, only notable for its slapdash filmmaking elements and its employment of a former "Dukes of Hazzard" star, who always carries a look of career regret. The internet tells me there's another sequel, the imaginatively titled "Lake Placid 3," released last year. As long as the crocodile doesn't look like a transparent green blob with magical powers of teleportation, and it stars Tom Wopat, I'm ready to give this unlikely franchise another shot.