Alligator II - Die Mutation

At the end of Alligator (1980) we see another gator flushed down the toilet and therefore a sequel is teased. 11yrs later the world got one and it's a bit of a mess.

Essentially the same movie, just with a weaker cast and somehow someway worse creature effects! Another oversized gator appears to lay waste to the city and it takes one renegade maverick cop to take it on.

This time it's been enhanced by chemical waste dumped into the sewers yet this doesn't seem to have changed the gator at all. If that is the excuse as to why it's so big then why does it appear smaller than the one in the first movie?

Poor creature feature and a miserable excuse for a sequel.

The Good:

Not so much

The Bad:

Creature effects, how 11yrs later can they be worse?

No consistency in gator size again

Terrible ending

A giant, aquatic creature is swimming through the water, attacking and rendering unsuspecting human prey. Meanwhile, a cop tries to find the beast, while attempting to convince a greedy, spineless Mayor to cancel an upcoming celebration. Does this sound familiar? Well, it should. It's the plot of JAWS. In ALLIGATOR II: THE MUTATION, this obvious lift is just the beginning of the absurd fun. There's a slimy real estate magnate played by Steve Railsback, Joseph Bologna as the cop, and Dee Wallace as his beautiful scientist wife. Later, Richard Lynch arrives as the Quint-like alligator hunter.

It seems that someone has been pumping toxic waste into the waterways, causing the creation of the titular terror. Alas, there's a ton of meaningless exposition, including a budding romance, and a veteran cop / rookie cop "buddy film" that takes up far too much of the film's running time. However, if your taste tends toward the cheeeze-tacular, then this farcical fondue should satisfy. Mr. Lynch and his hillbilly crew are particularly rib-tickling!

On the upside, there are loads of sewer sequences, a very typically-Hollywood street gang, and a truly explosive finale. Yep, just like in that aforementioned shark movie...

An alligator threatens the plans of a slimy condo developer in Alligator II: The Mutation.

The film begins with a murder via alligator before we are introduced to our main character David and his family. When he gets to the police station, he sees a report that two men didn't come home the night before and that a severed leg showed up on shore. When he brings it to the police chief and the mayors attention, they try to dismiss the claims of a potential alligator because of a new land development event happening in the area.

This event will apparently bring lots of money to the town. We meet the slimy condo developer Vincent Brown who is bringing a lot of money into the city and the area called Regent Park - right where the alligator has been attacking people. It will be up to David and an alligator hunter to stop the mutated beast from attacking the crowd at the development event in Regent Park.

I'm not sure why this sequel was made to be honest. Alligator II isn't a terrible film, but it's not needed after we saw it all before in the first film. This one suffers from an identity crisis as well. It's a killer alligator movie but also tries to be a comedy at times. Plus we get the side storyline of the building development scheme and how they are in control of the mayor and the police chief. We get less alligator and more of that plot for the most part. And the times we do see the beast, it's stock footage from the 1980 film. Pretty disappointing.

Joseph Bologna isn't the first person I'd choose to lead in a movie like this, but he does a fine job. It's always good to see Dee Wallace who plays David's wife. Legendary Brock Peters was fun to watch as Chief Speed. Woody Brown and Holly Gagnier are cute as the young couple who are finding love during this mayhem. The positives of Alligator II are the actors and the characters

Overall, Alligator II is an unnecessary sequel to a pretty good film from 1980. It has some fun moments, good performances by the actors, and a good finale, but finishes as a below average horror film.

4/10

I enjoyed the first "Alligator", but this one just does not live up to that one. Not that the first one is a superb movie, but it was a lot of fun. This one just is not good at all. The main problem for me was that the alligator was not all that impressive quite frankly. I have seen alligators this size before. The only thing different about it, is the fact it is tougher to kill. The story here isn't good either and neither is the action. They go into the sewers to hunt it then it attacks some festival and then they figure away to kill it. This movie is not going to knock your socks off with buckets of gore and it isn't very interesting either, best just to skip it. It just does not measure up to the first one.

1st watched 10/27/2000 - 4 out of 10 (Dir-Jon Hess): Rehash of 'Jaws' story not done near as well with of course an alligator instead of a shark. The performers try to keep it credible but it doesn't work. The alligator doesn't scare us and the story is too typical of this genre.