Mr. Crocodile Dundee

Crocodile Dundee - 4/5 stars

A Film Review by John Ulmer

"Crocodile Dundee" is one of those Fish Out of the Water tales; the innocent outsider thrown into the frustrations of modern life. Or is it the Croc out of the Water? Whatever it is, it's one of the best of its genre.

"Crocodile Dundee" is about a newspaper journalist (Linda Kozlowski) who travels out to the Outback, where she meets with Mick Dundee, better known as "Crocodile" Dundee. After wandering around in the Outback for a few days with Mick, writing her little story about surviving in the Outback, she decides that it would be interesting for her (or her newspaper?) to bring Mick back to New York City, where she lives. Mick reluctantly agrees, and travels to New York City clad in his croc-skin vest and Australian hat. Now Mick will have to adjust to modern life if he wishes to survive in New York.

"Crocodile Dundee" is, in a way, very typical of its kind. For example: Mick walks off the plane to NYC and steps onto an escalator, dressed in his Australian attire. Now, no matter how innocent and inexperienced a guy is, you can't tell me he's not going to realize he looks a bit odd in his clothes. The first thing I'd do is try to change to fit in better. But, you see, this is half the fun of this films, and all Fish Out of the Water films for that matter. If the main character did adapt straight away to his new surroundings, not only would it make for an awfully boring tale, but it would not be a proper Fish Out of the Water film.

Not only is Paul Hogan completely convincing in his role as Mick Dundee, he is utterly likable from the start. He's a nice, innocent Outback man who learns what the fast life is like, yet sticks to his old ways. As we can see from the less-successful sequels, Mick never really adapts to his surroundings. He learns how to survive, but he never buys fancy clothes or such: he sticks with his croc-vest and hat.

While "Crocodile Dundee" isn't exactly a great comedy, it's one of those that can be remembered for being very funny, and it is easy to watch. It has a certain charm to it, like many of those eighties' comedies. It makes it hard to hate them. Just yesterday I wrote a review for "Opportunity Knocks" with Dana Carvey. That movie wasn't great, but it's hard to dislike it. While "Crocodile Dundee" is about ten times greater than "Opportunity Knocks," it still isn't an excellent comedy. But because of its likable charm and great sense of humor, it's definitely one to see and watch many, many times.

There have been a lot of these kinds of films: "Blast From the Past," "Bubble Boy," to name a few recent of the genre. But "Crocodile Dundee" ranks as one of the best of its kind.

4/5 stars -

John Ulmer

Paul Hogan's original tailor-made 'fish out of water' flick became a massive hit in 1986 and still remains a warm, amusing and irresistibly enjoyable. In terms of plot, its simpler than simple - American reporter Linda Kozlowski is sent to Australia to investigate the legendary 'Crocodile' Dundee (Hogan) and ends up bringing the charming rogue back to the Big Apple. It's a winner in every sense from Hogan's wonderfully laid-back performance to his own screenplay, featuring an array of classic quips and moments. Peter Best's excellent musical score also deserves applause in helping to ensure that this film remains great, exciting and still novel entertainment almost two decades on.

When you think of memorable 1980's comedies, this one that might come to mind to mind. Revolving around a very colorful, witty and worry-free Australian crocodile poacher(Paul Hogan), it is a feel-good movie filled with many laughs and and witty one-liners.

It offers many laughs in the way of culture shock to both the reporter and Dundee himself. Giving not only a glimpse at culture in the outback, but also in bustling Manhattan. Dundee's innocence of adapting to the fast lifestyle of New York is a formula for laughter.

Paul Hogan plays a highly likable character, playing off of Linda Kozlowski perfectly, their chemistry is a major contributor to the overall success of this movie. It is filled with scenes of action and comedy, framed into a film that will make you laugh and feel good.

7/10

Linda Kozlowski plays a reporter who goes to the Australian Outback to do a story on Mick "Crocodile" Dundee, Played by Paul Hogan. She gets a good taste of Dundee's simple Tarzan-like life in the wilderness and decides to invite him to New York City. Dundee is a fish-out-of-water in the big city, of course, but it doesn't take him long to adapt, and the New Yorkers love him. Linda and Dundee naturally start to fall in love despite the fact that she has an arrogant fiancé.

"Crocodile Dundee" was released in 1986 and spawned two sequels in 1988 and 2001. It successfully combines 3 genres or themes -- romantic comedy, adventure and fish-out-of-water.

What makes the film work so well is the simple charisma of Paul Hogan. You'll likely never experience a more likable protagonist. On top of this, Linda Kozlowski is both likable and lovely, possessing an attractive spirituality and intelligence.

Paul and Linda have great chemistry. The chemistry is real seeing as how they would marry four years later in 1990. This is funny in light of the fact that one of Roger Ebert's main criticisms of the film was their supposed lack of chemistry. I love Roger Ebert. He's a great writer and critic, but he obviously missed it big on this one!

"Crocodile Dundee" was the most successful Australian film ever. It only runs about 90 minutes before the credits start. This is great because romantic comedies like "Dundee" are light fare; there's simply no reason to go much longer than an hour and a half. In other words, "Dundee" doesn't overstay its welcome.

GRADE: A-

The Australian film industry first began to come to international notice in the seventies and early eighties with films like Peter Weir's "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and "Gallipoli", Fred Schepisi's "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith" and Bruce Beresford's "Breaker Morant". Most of these were films with a serious theme and, often, a historical setting. "Crocodile Dundee" was different. Not only did it have a contemporary setting, it was also perhaps the first great Australian comedy- certainly the first Australian comedy to achieve international success.

The protagonists are Mick Dundee, a bushman from northern Australia, and Sue Charleton, an attractive young female journalist from New York. Sue is on assignment in Australia, and hears stories about a legendary crocodile hunter from the small outback village of Walkabout Creek. (The name may be homage to Nicolas Roeg's film "Walkabout", one of the earliest manifestations of the Australian New Wave. One of the stars of that film, David Gumpilil, has a part in Crocodile Dundee). Sue meets Mick to interview him and travels with him into the bush to see the scene of his famed encounter with a crocodile that nearly cost him his leg. She then arranges for him to travel back to New York with her- the first time he has been outside Australia or visited a city.

The film is essentially a romantic comedy. Romantic comedies generally deal with a couple in love and the way in which they overcome obstacles to their love. A common type of obstacle is a discrepancy in their social backgrounds, and this is the type we have here. Sue and Mick seem to be polar opposites. She is a typical product of the American East Coast elite- urban, wealthy, professional, politically committed to liberal causes. He is from a working-class background, rural, apolitical with no fixed employment. As another reviewer has pointed out, he is as much a fish out of water in the city as she is in the outback. To make things worse, he is considerably older than her, and she already has a boyfriend, her editor Richard. There is, however, a saying that polar opposites attract, and this is as true of characters in romantic comedies as it is of magnets. The marvellous ending on the crowded subway station is one of the most memorable finales to any romantic comedy, rivalling that of "The Graduate".

Some romantic comedies concentrate on romance at the expense of comedy, but Crocodile Dundee is not one of them. The film is brilliantly funny, especially in the second half when the action moves to New York. The main source of the humour is Paul Hogan's title character. Mick is a rough diamond, but decent, kindly and good-hearted. Most of the laughs arise from his innocent misunderstanding of the seedier aspects of life in the big city- there are jokes at the expense of prostitutes, criminals like the muggers who flee when they see Mick has a bigger knife than they have ("That's not a knife. THAT'S a knife!"), transvestites (one of whom Mick mistakenly tries to chat up), drug takers (Mick thinks cocaine is a cure for blocked sinuses) and psychiatrists ("Haven't you got any mates to talk to?") This last sentiment touched a chord in Britain, ever suspicious of the American obsession with psycho-analysis. Mick may be apolitical, but he is also politically incorrect- much of the humour is aimed at the culture of political correctness, just starting to burgeon in the mid-eighties. There are jokes about race and gender, and Dundee is not only a drinker but also a heavy smoker. (And this during a decade when smoking was almost banished from the screen).

Some of the humour is perhaps a bit exaggerated- it is, for example, difficult to believe that Mick does not recognise the prostitutes for what they are, as he is no sexual innocent but a red-blooded ladies' man with an eye for the Sheilas- but this is deliberate exaggeration for satirical effect. The film both satirises and celebrates Australia's self-image as a land of self-reliant pioneers from the outback- most modern Australians, in fact, live in the suburbs of a few large cities- by contrasting idealised rural Australian values with the supposed vices of urban America.

Despite the great success of this film, the sequel was less successful and Paul Hogan and his lovely co-star Linda Kozlowski (who later became his wife) did not perhaps go on to the glittering careers that some had predicted for them. Nevertheless, Mick Dundee will live on as one of the great comic characters of all time, and the film itself as one of the best comedies of the eighties and possibly the best Australian comedy ever. 9/10