Million Dollar Crocodile

Okay, so this movie is pure, unadulterated cheese. If your looking for something that will give you nightmares, or even be serious, try something else...War of the Worlds maybe.

In my experience, most Asian films when trying to portray a serious story go two ways, either heart-wrenching drama that makes me contemplate suicide...or a boring, matter of fact, mind dump of every small detail. Thankfully, this does neither...its just a stupid monster movie, with a fair amount of humor added in.

Seriously, the main characters name is "Wong Wei", and he is a bit of a stumble-bum...and the portrayed stereotypes of the bad guys is just stupidly funny. Its not Stephen Chou, but its still pretty darn watchable and good for a mindless chuckle here and there.

This is not, in fact, a new mega-gator from the folks at The Asylum, but rather it is a very entertaining Hong Kong comedy film originally titled MILLION DOLLAR CROCODILE. With a fine cast whose performances are muddled somewhat from over-the-top and campy English dubbing, this is a fun story about an 8-meter crocodile that is sold by its keeper to a sushi bar, but it soon escapes and ravages the countryside. Peopled by a diverse cast of eccentric and crazed characters, including (in fine Gamera kaiju style) a young boy who befriends the monster, the story plays out in typical giant monster fashion, only with plenty of slapstick and funny asides from the characters along the way. CGI visual effects are acceptable to very good. The orchestral music score, attributed to a Chinese composer named Dong Dongdong, is very supportive a well.

Xiao, befriends Amao a 36 foot crocodile, who lives on his fathers croc sanctuary.

Xiao's father is forced to sell his crocodiles to a gangster who plans to use them for high priced meals.

Before Amao is due to be slaughtered, he escapes, slaying his captors in the process.

Amongst the chaos, Amao accidentally swallows a bag with $1 million dollars inside.

When rumor's of this spread, the town locals are split with some fearing for their lives and others set out to capture and kill the crocodile, at any cost.

More or less a rip off of the Godzilla chain using technology stolen from the West. It's a harmless movie with kookie acting and a kid's focus. If adults watch this film, they are crazy.

As much of a fan as I am of Asian cinema, then this movie was sort of a long-dragged session to get through. "Croczilla" ("Million Dollar Crocodile") is labeled as an action/Sci Fi/thriller. Right, so where does these actually come into play? This is more of a family/comedy movie if anything. Why? Well because of the silly storyline and even worse dialogue.

The story is about a huge crocodile that is sold to a shady restaurant in order to be turned into a dish for restaurant patrons, but the crocodile escapes death and captivity and wrecks havoc on the farming countryside. Where it snatches up the purse from a stranded woman. Determined to get her many Euros back, the woman sets out to track down the huge crocodile. A small boy and his father also become part of the crocodile hunt.

Storywise, then "Croczilla" was fairly weak. Sure it was enjoyable enough in itself, but the movie just came off as a cheesy and rather family-friendly movie, and not the action/Sci Fi/thriller it was intended to be.

This movie is meant to be seen with the original language track. Trust me! Don't switch to the English dub, because it is just awful. It is amazing that in 2012 something questionable as that dubbing still can take place. Not only is it bad, but it is so full of racial stereotyping on the Asian, that it is just offensive to everyone and downright racially inappropriate.

"Croczilla" is perhaps suitable for hardcore fans of Asian cinema, and that perhaps is a big perhaps at that. This movie offers nothing new, innovating or interesting to any particular genre, nor does it impress in any way.

I once worked with a Florida native who held me in awe with her stories relating watching gators walk the streets in the quiet, Summer mornings of her hometown. Since then, much to my husband's dismay, I have wanted to experience seeing these mighty animals in nature for myself! Well, I think there is one particular moment in this movie that may have finally fixed that idea! :)

I very much enjoyed this film! The gator was magnificent, and the actors/characters were interesting. The dubbing could have been much better admittedly, but what ended up killing the movie for my husband, and led me to only give the film a 6, is the ending.

I don't want to give it away, and it is definitely still a journey worth watching. I commend the movie for managing to make a statement about how cruel humans are to animals, but there is so much MORE they could have done with the ending. Even with leaving one of the characters as is, there is so much MORE that could have been done, or said, concerning another. We don't even have a final answer for that particular character, and whereas they may have done that on purpose, leaving his fate up to the viewers' imagination, I would have still appreciated some further answer on it! The final scenes were lackluster at best, although I again do appreciate the statement they made about "human" kind.