Alligator II, la mutation

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.

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

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.

This serviceable follow-up to the original ALLIGATOR has absolutely nothing to do with that movie – other than featuring an alligator living in the sewers of a US city. I actually found this a fun, tongue-in-cheek little monster movie that works around the low budget to deliver a pacy, entertaining film with a strong script to recommend it. It's closer to PIRANHA than JAWS in tone, with the usual stock characters showing up: the rookie cop, the greedy property developer, the ignorant mayor and the dedicated law enforcer on the tail of the beast (literally in this case).

The worst thing about the film is the alligator itself. It's a combination of stock footage from the original film and an absolutely rubbishy pair of rubber jaws pushed at the intended victims. The poor FX and distant lack of bloodshed make the various attack sequences a real let-down, but that's okay because what happens when the alligator isn't on-screen is more interesting than it is.

The clichéd characters are brought to life by a wonderful ensemble cast of familiar faces. Joseph Bologna is well cast as the likable cop doing his best to catch the best; I also liked Woody Brown as the young, inexperienced, square-jawed hero. Dee Wallace Stone (THE HOWLING) finds herself wasted as the cop's wife with nothing to do, but the stunning Holly Gagnier has more fun playing the mayor's daughter. The scene chewing is left to a pair of dedicated B-movie veterans.

First up is Steve Railsback (TURKEY SHOOT), excellent as the utterly repulsive villain of the piece; second we have Richard Lynch playing one of those half-crazed redneck hunter types. Other familiar faces include Brock Peters as the black chief of police, Jason Voorhees himself, Kane Hodder, as an alligator hunter and Voyo Goric (a Russian villain in RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART 2) as a henchman. This isn't a great film by any means, but I found it a more than entertaining effort considering the budget.

An alligator gets into a lake and eats people while a crooked land developer tries to evict people from their homes.

This movie is strictly B level, by the numbers stuff with nothing really to differentiate it from the million other creature features that exist. That said, its harmless and mindless enough that you can watch it and be pleasantly entertained for 90 minutes. You aren't going to remember it or care, but at least you won't feel like your life has been sucked out by a terrible piece of garbage that was only designed to steal your money and leave you an empty husk of humanity devoid of soul or purpose.