Crocodile Dundee In Los Angeles
Sadly produced about ten years too late when the general moviegoing public could have cared less about the iconic 80s character, this third entry about the amicable crocodile hunter nonetheless retains the easy charm of the prior films, even if the writing and comedy bits are a lot more inconsistent. Paul Hogan (well past 60 at the time) still looks the part of the Aussie he-man Mick Dundee, and manages to slide right in and pick up where he left off, as does Linda Kozlowski (well past 40) as his wife Sue. The idea of giving the couple a son could have been a disaster, but Serge Cockburn(?) in the part doesn’t do too bad, and gets a couple of good moments (after being hit on by a obnoxious California woman who roller-skates away, Dundee’s son slyly observes “She’s got a nice ass, Daddy.”). Unfortunately the plotline, which brings the clan to LA to investigate the death of a reporter at her father’s newspaper, is taken straight out of a Beverly Hills Cop movie (and using Jonathan Banks, so effective as a henchman in the first Cop flick, as one of the main bad guys here only emphasizes that fact). Apparently a struggling movie studio is using their latest production as a front for smuggling priceless works of art (which Dundee figures out in about 30 seconds, having watched a lot of TV), and it’s time for the Crocodile man to “go to war” again, using his wits to subdue the (armed) bad guys on a movie studio soundstage. The screenplay gets a little carried away with a few too many pop culture references, and many of the funny bits fall completely flat, including a bizarre cameo by Mike Tyson. And the scene where Dundee attends a Hollywood party is just loaded with fail, from the cliché of having a whiny actor complain about being amongst all the phonies to George Hamilton providing a pointless cameo in his own right. It’s a little disarming to see Alec Wilson (who played a bad guy in Dundee 2) recast here as Mick’s best friend who comes over to LA to lend a hand, but the two actually do make a good team (the two Aussie cowboys walking around LA even recalls director Simon Wincer’s earlier Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man), and a number of scenes showing Mick working as a movie extra alongside Paul Rodriguez (finally getting some work again) serve as a nice counterpoint to the fact that there’s not much of a story and the humor is very hit or miss. Overall, an inoffensive view for fans of the 80s films, but otherwise nothing really special at all…
5/10