Million Dollar Crocodile (2012)

Too much of everything

Just perfect...

hyped garbage

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Even by the admittedly slack standards of The Chiller Channel, infamous for some of the worst, low-budget, terribly-acted, cartoonish-CGI movies, this one is bad. Tao Guo and Barbie Hsu aren't, on the form shown here, qualified to act in a local theater version of Andy Warhol's "Empire" (it showed the Empire State Building solo for 24 hours). How this movie got 4.2 stars out of 10 is a story meriting a movie in itself. Given a choice, do anything else but watch this movie.

This is an entertaining, campy movie. The poor crocodile isn't really a monster; it just acts that way because it's aggravated. It's the people who exhibit bizarre behavior. This movie offers a dreary and troubling depiction of people. The only character worthy of respect is the crocodile. Everyone else is loud, obnoxious, incompetent and greedy. No wonder the crocodile wants to be left alone. The plot bears a slight resemblance to the original King Kong. In both movies a large, menacing creature is exploited, causing much havoc. The cinematography is good and the depictions of the crocodile are convincing. This is a big creature. But it is not a monster. Rather, it's an animal that is being mistreated and so is defending herself. The creature lacks the intelligence to discern friend from enemy, and so lashes out indiscriminately. Lacking decisional capacity, the crocodile is blameless for any harm done; that is attributable solely to the humans, many of whom are hysterical. There is little character development, but the movie provides enough information for a coherent story. Although this movie has its flaws, nevertheless it is interesting and entertaining, and teaches that one should respect other creatures, especially ones that weigh thousands of pounds and have huge, sharp teeth.

Xiao, befriends Amao a 36 foot crocodile, who lives on his fathers croc sanctuary. Xiao's father is forced to sell his crocodiles to a gangster who plans to use them for high priced meals. Before Amao is due to be slaughtered, he escapes, slaying his captors in the process. Amongst the chaos, Amao accidentally swallows a bag with $1 million dollars inside. When rumor's of this spread, the town locals are split with some fearing for their lives and others set out to capture and kill the crocodile, at any cost. More or less a rip off of the Godzilla chain using technology stolen from the West. It's a harmless movie with kookie acting and a kid's focus. If adults watch this film, they are crazy.

As much of a fan as I am of Asian cinema, then this movie was sort of a long-dragged session to get through. "Croczilla" ("Million Dollar Crocodile") is labeled as an action/Sci Fi/thriller. Right, so where does these actually come into play? This is more of a family/comedy movie if anything. Why? Well because of the silly storyline and even worse dialogue.The story is about a huge crocodile that is sold to a shady restaurant in order to be turned into a dish for restaurant patrons, but the crocodile escapes death and captivity and wrecks havoc on the farming countryside. Where it snatches up the purse from a stranded woman. Determined to get her many Euros back, the woman sets out to track down the huge crocodile. A small boy and his father also become part of the crocodile hunt.Storywise, then "Croczilla" was fairly weak. Sure it was enjoyable enough in itself, but the movie just came off as a cheesy and rather family-friendly movie, and not the action/Sci Fi/thriller it was intended to be.This movie is meant to be seen with the original language track. Trust me! Don't switch to the English dub, because it is just awful. It is amazing that in 2012 something questionable as that dubbing still can take place. Not only is it bad, but it is so full of racial stereotyping on the Asian, that it is just offensive to everyone and downright racially inappropriate."Croczilla" is perhaps suitable for hardcore fans of Asian cinema, and that perhaps is a big perhaps at that. This movie offers nothing new, innovating or interesting to any particular genre, nor does it impress in any way.