Cast: Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski, Serge Cockburn, Jere Burns, Jonathan Banks, Aida Turturro, Paul Rodriguez
Director: Simon Wincer
Producers: Lance Hool, Paul Hogan
Screenplay: Matthew Berry & Eric Abrams and Paul Hogan (uncredited)
Cinematography: David Burr
Music: Basil Poledouris
U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures
There's something sad (bordering on distressing) about seeing a lame sequel to a well-liked motion picture. In fact, such lackluster follow-ups often have the unfortunate effect of diminishing their predecessor(s). That probably isn't the case for Crocodile Dundee In Los Angeles, considering that the original reached screens 15 years ago; nevertheless, this is a motion picture that never should have been made. It has no reason for being, and never argues a compelling case for why we should spend the time or money to watch it. People will see this movie for nostalgic reasons; everyone who was around in the mid-'80s remembers Mick Dundee and his "That's not a knife. This is a knife" line. But the promise of spending a little time with an old friend is not enough of an incentive for most rational people to venture into a multiplex. Paul Hogan should have left Crocodile Dundee in the Subaru commercials and kept him away from the big screen.
Still, it's shocking how inept this film is. Even Crocodile Dundee 2, which was a big step down from the first Crocodile Dundee, had its moments. There was an energy to the production, and the actors involved seemed to be enjoying themselves. Crocodile Dundee In Los Angeles, however, has the feeling of something manufactured by-the-numbers with little joy and less creativity. Watching the film, it's almost possible to sense the desperation of a man who's trying to jump-start a dead career. Hogan should have stuck to his original declaration that he would never do a third Crocodile Dundee movie; this outing argues for the validity of that position. This picture will not return Hogan or his co-star/wife Linda Kozlowski to the lofty pinnacle from which they have tumbled.
The movie, which seems strangely incomplete without Peter Best's signature music (no offense to Basil Poledouris), opens in Walkabout Creek, where virtually the entire population has changed since the last Crocodile Dundee film. (John Meillon, who played Mick's nervous sidekick, Walter Reilly, died 12 years ago.) Although they are not officially married, Mick (Hogan) and Sue (Kozlowski) have a young son, Mikey (Serge Cockburn), who's learning the finer points of crocodile hunting. When Sue is offered a chance to return to her journalist roots by temporarily taking over her father's newspaper's Los Angeles bureau, Mick thinks it's a good idea. So the Dundee trio heads to Hollywood - perhaps the only place in America where the sight of an Australian cowboy walking along a street won't cause people to do double-takes.
Recognizing that the fish-out-of-water elements which anchored the U.S. half of the original Crocodile Dundee aren't enough to sustain this movie, the filmmakers lift something off the "stock plots for bad crime movies" shelf - an art smuggling operation that uses movie-making as a front. Of course, Mick goes undercover on-set as an animal trainer, ends up figuring out the entire caper, and saves the day after a needlessly long chase through various movie sets. Wake me up when it's over.
The movie tries hard - too hard - to generate humor from the same kind of situations that were funny in the first Crocodile Dundee. It's a case of going to the well once too often, and the result has a painfully low laugh quotient. Many of the film's comedic set-pieces are thinly-disguised remakes of similar situations from the 1986 effort. So we get Mick stopping a robbery, avoiding a mugging, and having an encounter with a cross-dressing man. He also causes a traffic jam when he mistakes a skunk for a dog, stabs a mechanical anaconda on a tour of Paramount Studios, visits a Wendy's drive-thru (major product placement warning), and has conversations with George Hamilton (about enemas) and Mike Tyson (about meditation). Nearly every one of these sketches falls flat for two reasons. First, on the character level, Mick Dundee has already had a significant brush with civilization. He's no longer an innocent when it comes to city life. Second, on the filmmaking side, the movie doesn't have a sense of comic timing. Director Simon Wincer, who worked with Hogan on Lightning Jack, even manages to mute his star's high-wattage charisma.
Another thing that's missing from Crocodile Dundee In Los Angeles is the romantic aspect. Granted, the relationship between Sue and Mick in the first movie was pure formula, but the two clicked. This time out, however, even though the actors have been married for 11 years, there's no chemistry. The characters seem like strangers to one another, and there's not one Mick/Sue scene that works. There is also a failed attempt to inject a little romance by having Mick wrestle with the question of whether he should legally marry Sue. These two have a dull, domesticated relationship, and its blandness weighs down an already faltering picture.
To be frank, I didn't anticipate much from Crocodile Dundee In Los Angeles. The second movie in the series convinced me that Hogan's concept was good for only one film. Bringing Mick out of mothballs seemed like a bad decision from the start, and the results have borne out my misgivings. Yet, as low as my expectations were, I did not foresee that the movie would be this boring and humor deprived. Hopefully, a low box office tally will lay the series to rest once and for all. Crocodile Dundee was a phenomenon, Crocodile Dundee 2 was a curiosity, and Crocodile Dundee In Los Angeles is a travesty.
© 2001 James Berardinelli