This movie has the charm of the old and cheap monster movies. Well, not that old (since it was filmed in 1989), but it definitely has a 80's feeling to it. Let's start with the good points of this movie : "Killer crocodile" (and its sequel, filmed at the same time) is cheap, but most part of the budget went into the crocodile itself. No CGI, but a full (plastic) giant crocodile, which is a good starting point. There is a certain amount of gruesome deaths (with limbs cut off and everything), and, since there is an attack about every 10 minutes, you don't get bored watching the movie. Also, the music was made by the famous Riz Ortolani, who was already familiar with horror movies set in beautiful locations of south American forests, as he is also the composer of the theme for the infamous "Cannibal Holocaust".But the gruesome deaths don't really make up for many other problems in the movie. The acting is definitely the worst part of it : it's just ridiculous (except for the late Ennio Girolami, playing the character of the mysterious Joe, a boor and lonely hunter out to kill the beast). The dialogues try to underline plot elements that don't really lead anywhere, when not being completely over-the-top.And the crocodile might be giant, but still : its big yellow eyes and deep growls make him seem actually cute at times.In conclusion? Don't watch it if you're looking for a masterpiece. But it definitely is pretty entertaining... Although not for the reasons the director wanted it to be.

When a team of environmentalists go to a remote swamp somewhere in Central America they find that it has been polluted with radioactive chemicals. They also discover a huge crocodile which has been exposed to it as well as a corrupt politician who has allowed this pollution to happen. Anyway, so much for the plot which, while certainly not Academy Award winning material, has a couple of good things going for it all the same. First, it has some nice scenery—for a swamp at least. Likewise, I thought Sherrie Rose (as "Pamela") didn't hurt the scenery much either. To a lesser degree it featured an interesting crocodile which nobody would mistake for the real thing. On that note, although some might find this to be a liability I believe that if a person uses their imagination and has a sense of humor then they might actually appreciate the time and effort that went into it. Of course, that may be more difficult for some and I certainly wouldn't blame anybody who couldn't make allowances. Even so, to me the worst part of this movie was the clumsy dialogue. While I realize that it was filmed in Italian and dubbed in English it was still pretty awful all the same. And it really affected the overall quality of this movie. Anyway, to sum it all up this was clearly a grade-B movie which probably won't appeal to anybody other than those who enjoy cheesy rip-offs of films in this particular genre. That said, I rate it as slightly below average.

This Italian "Jaws" knock-off really only has one redeeming feature, so I might as well open with it: the croc is real! Well, not real real, but I mean that it isn't a cheap CGI effect like in "Blood Surf" or God forbid "Crocodile". The puppet they use can't really move well, but at least it's actually freakin' there. It even looks pretty scary from time to time, they really did an excellent job with such a limited budget. It's just too bad they couldn't use the model in a better movie, because all other aspects of "Killer Crocodile" are well below average. The characters are annoying, the dialogues are uninspired and the story developments are all lifted directly from "Jaws". They even bring in a blatant Quint rip-off just for those who don't catch on quickly. Hell, even the music is just John Williams' theme with one or two different notes to avoid a lawsuit. In the end there are no scares, no real memorable scenes and a pretty boring finale but like I said, the puppet's damn cool. It might be worth a watch just because of that, and also for the rare "so bad it's good" moment.

Like silly films about giant animals? Then Killer Crocodile is probably for you, it may not be a good film but it does better than it should. Environmentalists head into the swamp to investigate toxic waste dumping, but as well as waste they find a big green killing machine and he (or maybe she, its never specified) means business. A sizable chunk of the budget appears to have gone into the croc, which is a big, gnarly creation with massive jaws full of sharp teeth, its impressive enough that it almost excuses its overuse during earlier scenes. Suspense is sadly sapped in the first half by the fact that the croc rears its ugly head a bunch of times so it never accrues much sense of fear, but at least it looks cool. Still, we got great settings and committed acting to mull over as the film moves up through the gears, one great scene in the first half and a second half of solidly bumptious if occasionally inept cheeseball entertainment, with a few moments sure to give joy to daft movie lovers. As well as our environmentalist heroes, we have a shifty corporate waste dumper, a judge with something to hide and best of all, a Quint clone geared up to take down the nefarious beast. Also, the Riz Ortolani score is an amusingly blatant rip of the Jaws theme tune, never a bad thing in my book. Fabrizio de Angelis directs without much flair and there's at least one notable continuity screw up as well as the expected illogicality, but he at least handles some decent dashes of suspense and fun and nothing about the film takes itself too seriously. Anthony Crenna has the right kind of slightly naive youthful authority as the leader of the environmentalists, Wohrman Williams is slimy enough as the token evil corporate guy, while Van Johnson brings a dignified authenticity to the conflicted judge. Italian cult regular Ennio Girolami does best as Quint clone Joe though, a wryly amused, knowing sort of performance that comes off both hard-ass and self aware. Gianetto di Rossi's special effects work is less gory than his outings with Fulci and others, but there are one or two grisly bits and as mentioned, the croc is grand (and gets an awesome send off). There's not much more to say about this one really, its not great but has ample potential to amuse the more forgiving of dopey trash enthusiasts, and when it shines, it really shines. Taken for giggles, this is fairly worthwhile, but only if you groove to this sort of thing.