Krocodylus (2001)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A television producer, a camera chick & two surfers head to a distant island in the Philippines in order to make a documentary about "blood surfing", an extreme sport where the surfers throw blood into the water then surf in the midst of sharks. But after a good day's surfing, the group discover that something has destroyed their boat. They are then pursued by a monster saltwater crocodile that kills for fun & that is after them in a big way. Along with a group of pirates who patrol the island & a sea captain who is itching for a way to get revenge on the croc for ruining his life, the crew must find a way to escape the island & the croc's teeth.I really love killer crocodile films – my love for this under-appreciated subgenre stems from watching my late father's VHS copy of the Italian flick Killer Crocodile during my youth. That film was awesome to my nine-year-old eyes & even today it still gets me going. Ever since then, I've seen a number of similar films.Blood Surf is one of the millennium's first ever monster crocodile films – made in 2000 to be exact – and I first saw it on late night television. At the time, I thought it was pretty silly given the lack of a good script & some pretty mediocre visual effects (the crocodile looked pretty fake). Years later, I obtained a VHS copy of Blood Surf & decided to review it. Was my initial assessment of the film accurate? Well, yes & no.Blood Surf is a horror film for surfers. The heroes of the piece are a pair of dumb white-bread surfer dudes (& the top-ranking female is an Aussie camera chick), one of whom has an unhealthy love for his surfboard; the premise involves an extreme form of surfing – not content with killer waves, they hit upon the idea of surfing in shark-infested waters – and the film is filled with all manner of surfing dialogue & terminology. The film even goes so far as to acknowledge its inspiration – "What's the name of that killer shark movie?" one surfer asks; "Jaws". "There's no mechanical fish on this island." The film, in an attempt to reach out to the jaded teenage market, has a sex scene where one of the surfers has sex with who is later revealed to be an underage local girl (the scenes being intercut with the death of the girl's parents makes this a real mess of a scene). I wonder if anyone out there might be interested in actually making a real attempt at actually "blood surfing" (it would be a pretty wild ride, despite being an insane idea). This film's first act is quite good.But once the crocodile begins attacking, Blood Surf quickly falls into the tired Jaws templater that it was billed as. The visual effects are pretty poor – once the croc appears, you will know why they kept it hidden. The creature is simply a large animatronic croc that looks pretty badly designed (the crocodiles in the Killer Crocodile films looked much more convincing & those two films had a much lower budget than this one) & which is 'supplanted' by miniatures, bad CGI & stock footage. The inclusion of pirates into the film is a poor attempt at causing complications in the story & some of the croc attacks are so fake-looking that they will incite laughter in the audience.On the acting front, the cast do a reasonable effort at filling their roles but you'll still realise that their roles are nothing more than cardboard clichés. Most notable is the film's version of Quint – Duncan Regehr's character of John Dirks – who even dies the same way (getting bitten in half). Katie Fischer seems to be overdoing her native Aussie accent in an attempt to pander to the Americans in order to bring back memories of the Crocodile Dundee films. Director James D. R. Hickox, who is the brother of genre director Anthony Hickox (who made the likes of HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH & the Steven Seagal actioner SUBMERGED) gets a fair amount of mileage out of the surroundings & the underwater shots but doesn't seem to be as good a director as his brother (who himself is only a passable director at best), making piecemeal out of what should have been a reasonable monster flick. Still, it's not a total loss & the story will make many Jaws fans laugh their heads off.

Funny how this movie starts out making a sly remark about the mechanical shark in the cult movie "Jaws", especially when this movie itself makes use of some poorly pasted shark footage and a mechanical crocodile. And there are a lot of similarities to "Jaws" throughout this entire movie."Blood Surf" is about a group of young people traveling to a tropical island in order to make a movie about surfing in shark-infested waters. They soon find themselves prey for a monstrous saltwater crocodile.If you have seen "Jaws" then you have essentially already also seen "Blood Surf"; except "Jaws" was impressive and good, "Blood Surf" wasn't.As for the acting in the movie, well, let's just say it was as to be expected for a movie of this type. That being said, don't get me wrong, I am not saying it is bad, just don't expect any extravagant performances.If for nothing else, then there are some pretty nice locations throughout the movie that are nice to look at.There was a very unnecessary lovemaking scene which just sleazes up the movie in a very pointless way. And I have never seen two women flashing their breasts at a crocodile while yelling "f... you" at it, but hey, it was here in this movie."Blood Surf" is good enough for a single viewing if you enjoy a movie in the man-eater genre. It is adequate entertainment for what it was. But my rating of the movie is four out of ten stars because "Blood Surf" doesn't bring anything that hasn't already been seen in many other similar movies throughout the years.

Along with Roger Ebert, I share the belief that you can enjoy movies that really aren't very good. "Blood Surf" is one such movie. It is so harmlessly incompetent and casual that you have to just take it with a grin and some mental vacuity.Editing? Hit-and-miss. Continuity? Out sick for the day. Special effects? Whatever was on hand. A typical scene will include a shot of the croc with a harpoon and line embedded in it PRIOR to the harpoon being shot.The casting is actually excellent. Everyone fits his/her part perfectly, though the acting itself leaves a bit to be desired. (I would have like to have seen the casting calls. "Very, very flat-chested young blonde needed to balance very healthy brunette. This role will serve to keep the boat from listing to one side." While everyone seems to want to pick on the croc, I actually got the biggest grin watching the fake sharks and dorsal fins around the surfers. They remind you of Photshop 1.0.Definitely worth watching late at night.

If you're looking for a new film franchise to rival the likes of Jaws and Predator, then keep looking. This ain't gonna win an Oscar. But that doesn't mean it's bad. The story is of a film crew shooting surfers, eh, surfing with sharks. What they don't know is that a dirty big Croc is also under the sea.The actors are all unknown to me, but they are all actually pretty good. The 2 surf bum main characters especially could have their own show. But the real star is the Croc. Probably some of the worst special effects I've yet seen, though the head and jaws looked cool when it was on land.As always with a low budget horror film, there's a couple of topless scenes, couple of sex scenes and plenty of tight tops and cleavage. Which is no bad thing in my book.I won't ruin the ending, but I nearly cried it was so funny.To sum up, stone cold sober analysis of this flick won't reveal it to be a Citizen Kane, but then that isn't what the film is trying to achieve. With a 6 pack in you though, it's highly enjoyable. - 4/5