DVD review (region 1)
Directed by Stewart Raffill
Starring Peter Tuinstra, Michael Madsen, Scott Hazell, Elizabeth Healey, Peter Tuinstra
Release date Out now

Maneating crocodile hokum ahoy!

You know the drill. Large predator (in this case, a crocodile) stakes a claim off a tourist beach and proceeds to devour various young people. Cue hero under pressure to bring said predator to heel while in conflict with local politicians…

In this case, it’s Thailand and our hero is Jack (Tuinstra), owner of a crocodile park under threat from unscrupulous hotel magnets keen on turning his beloved park into a thoroughfare to the beach. The death tool mounts, the conflict intensifies and up steps… Michael Madsen playing ‘Croc’ Hawkins!

Madsen’s world-weary gravitas is one of the few points of interest in an otherwise dreary addition to the ‘super predator’ canon. The obvious role model for Hawkins is Robert Shaw’s Quint, but anyone unfortunate enough to have seen Rambo probably won’t be able to help drawing certain similarities to Sly’s ‘anti-hero in retirement’.

Hawkins’ view of the croc as an evil entity also conflicts with the cod-eco message tacked onto the movie. The croc is actually a ‘salty’ – a saltwater crocodile coming north as a result of global warming.

The croc itself appears as a mix of what appears to be one CGI shot used several times, a model and a lot of stock footage. Herpetologists can enjoy playing ‘spot the different species’. Steve White

VERDICT: 4/10
While not necessarily giving a different meaning to the title, Croc is a bland movie. Not well written enough to make up for the lack of SFX or gore, you’d be better off re-watching Lake Placid.