Chorakhe

This ultra-cheap Thai export, borrows wholesale from the last third of "Jaws", and yet despite the carbon copy approach, manages to end without the audience even knowing if the title beast has been overcome, or whether the hero has survived. There's an almighty commotion, then, the film abruptly ends.

While enjoying a weekend getaway with their wives and offspring, Dr. Tony and his budding medic friend soon become widows of an oceanic behemoth, that proceeds to devour everything in its path. Not content to grieve in silence, the pair gesticulate for about three-quarters of an hour on how they'll avenge their family's deaths; meanwhile, the beast is causing mayhem in the local village. After much soul-searching, reflection and the occasional bizarre chemistry experiment, the two eventually enlist the services of a rugged fisherman Tanaka (Kirk Warren) and set off by boat to end the creature's path of chaos and destruction.

Frequent use of miniature sets and paltry special effects afford this film a corny quality the antithesis of the otherwise intense and heavy-handedness of the characterisations. Disjointed editing, unintelligible dubbing, droning monotone synthesisers, and annoying cinematography (from extreme darkness to blinding sunlight pans) don't assist the flailing storyline. Must surely be considered a curiosity, and will more than likely compel a second look, even if just to try and decipher what happened (or didn't happen, but should have). An interesting insight into late 70's Thai cinema, and the techniques that were unemployed when making movies.

My review was written in November 1981 after a Times Square screening:

The ongoing cycle of horror pictures hits bottom with "Crocodile", an almost unwatchable "Jaws" ripoff shot in Thailand. Picked up for domestic use by Herman Cohen's new Cobra Media distribbery, film has a marketable title and little else.

Atomic testing in the atmosphere has created a huge mutant crocodile, destroying whole villages (its tail causing tidal wave effects) as it heads for Bangkok. A scientist Dr. Akom, his friend John and a ship captain named Tanaka set out by boat to destroy it, aided by a comic relief photographer.

Amidst the sloppily assembled footage of silly model shots, bloody killings and an unconvincing set of various-scale crocodiles, picture's only diversion is its risible dubbed dialog. "If it kills every three days it must be following a pattern", John announces at one point. Film is so inept that when they finally blow up the monster, we never see whether the heroes survive. Technical credits are poor.

You guys who gave this movie more than one star are nuts!

This movie is slapped together in a way that can only be described as awful! I watched it with a group of friends and most of them were drunk or drinking and it was not even that funny.

Aside from a shot of a monkey on the crocodile's tail and some bad fake blood being spit out of a victim's mouth there was little to find amusing. The special effects are weak and silly looking. The music is warbled and weird. The acting is non-existent. The direction is no where to be found. Also they kill a live crocodile on screen which is tasteless and disgusting.

One of the all-time worst JAWS rip-offs! A horribly shot, edited and mixed film. Altogether atrocious!

Before I get into the review for Crocodile, here are my ratings for the movie.

The story gets 0.5 out of 2: For Direction and Pacing a 0.75: While the Performances get 1: And my Enjoyment level earns a 0.75 out of 2: Crocodile, therefore, receives a total of 3 out of 10.

Crocodile is a lacklustre rip-off of Jaws, with the killer fish changed out for a killer reptile. And if you thought the great white shark looked fake, wait until you see the croc for the first time. Get your coffin ready you'll die laughing.

That's assuming you'll make it to that scene.

The sad thing with this movie is the acting isn't too terrible. It won't win an Oscar, but it's enjoyable enough. Though the cast members are the best thing about this movie, they couldn't lift the story of the direction up into the realms of watchability.

Director, Sampote Sands, sets the pace of this movie at a meander, and it never breaks into a walk, let alone a jog. The slowness hinders the feature immensely, and you may perceive yourself drifting off to sleep. Impeding it further are the countless stock scenes of ambulances. These needed editing to make them exciting. However, Sands must have thought the sight of an ambulance was thrilling enough for the audience. It isn't.

Crocodile's most significant handicap is its directing and editing. Everything appears haphazard and ill-thought-out. You have close-ups when they're unrequired and distance shots when you need to be in the thick of the action.

Everything considered this was a poorly written, inadequately filmed and edited flick, with an okay cast of actors and actresses.

That said, for such a terrible movie, it does possess an entertaining side. Its awfulness made me smile (I do love B-movies.), though I found it too dreadful to recommend.

If you want a good creature feature film to watch, then dust off your Jaws DVD and enjoy.

Take Care & Stay Well; Get Inoculated.

It's been a long while since I've seen it, but all through this "Chorakhe" I had the impression that it's the exact same movie as "Agowa Gongpo". And not just bit and pieces of footage that were edited into one another, but really one and the same film. IMDb lists them as two films, and they have different casts & crew listed, so I reckon they are two separate films indeed; - regardless of featuring the same film posters and very similar storylines.

And, of course, what does it matter anyways? They are both shameless and 200% uninspired "Jaws" rip-offs, only this time coming from the oriental part of the planet. Everything about "Crocodile" is copied from Steven Spielberg's blockbuster classic, including the music, the characters' personalities, the beach sequences, the POV-camerawork, etc. From the croc itself, we mainly see its evil eye in close-up and its rear end whenever the animal strolls back into the high grass after another lousily accomplished attack sequence. I love crocodile movies, in fact I love creature-features in general, but this one is practically unwatchable.