Lake Placid is a fun horror-comedy, with more emphasis on humor, that might not be the best written flick but it’s a breezy enough 82-minutes of sarcastic one-liners and characters, albeit mostly on-dimensional, that you actually enjoy watching, especially a fouled-mouthed Betty White in a small yet pivotal role.
Lake Placid
Collector’s Edition
(1999)
Genre(s): Horror, Comedy
Shout Factory | R – 82 min. – $29.93 | July 8, 2014
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MOVIE INFO: Directed by: Steve Miner Writer(s): David E. Kelley (written by) Cast: Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson, Betty WhiteDISC INFO: Features: Featurettes, Theatrical Trailer, TV Spots Number of Discs: 1Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 5.1) Video: 1080p/Widescreen 2.35 Subtitles: English SDH Disc Size: 33.0 GB Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Region(s): A |
PLOT SUMMARY
An investigative team – including Fish & Game Officer Jack Wells (BILL PULLMAN), museum paleontologist Kelly Scott (BRIDGET FONDA), town Sheriff Hank Keough (BRENDAN GLEESON) and eccentric crocodile tracker Hector Cyr (OLIVER PLATT) – armed with state-of-the-art equipment, high-powered weaponry and a biting sense of sarcasm, must work together to defeat Black Lake’s most ferocious resident: a 30-foot prehistoric crocodile!
QUICK HIT REVIEW — 3.0/5
Nobody is going to mistake Lake Placid for being a high-concept or even that well made creature action-adventure and it’s not the smoothest in terms of pacing, but for my money it’s a fun little flick written by David E. Kelley (“Boston Legal”) and helmed by Steve Miner (Halloween H20) harkening back to the 60s and 70s B-movies. The characters aren’t the smartest, the love connection between the two leads is a bit thin and yet it’s still an enjoyable 82-minute flick that actually has a fair amount of replay value. Unfortunately there were three DTV sequels which were god-awful.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.25/5
This release comes with a matted slip cover. The inner cover is reversible with the movie’s original theatrical poster.
Making of Lake Placid (31:20) is a new featurette with interviews by actor Bill Pullman, Director Steve Miner, Editor Marshall Harvey, Production Designer John Willett and Cinematographer Daryn Okada and others as, individually, recollect about the movie, how it was made and other little tidbits.
Featurette (5:38) – This is a vintage feature made to advertise the movie.
Also includes the Theatrical Trailer (1:58), some TV Spots (1:34), Croc Test Footage (7:21) and a Behind the Scenes Gallery (5:31).
VIDEO – 4.0/5
Lake Placid attacks onto Blu-ray presented with a 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and a new 1080p high-definition transfer. The detail levels on this movie are good; colors appear to be rich and bright popping off the screen well enough while the darker scenes are fairly stark. It’s a solid enough transfer with no obvious signs of artifacts, pixilation or compression issues.
AUDIO – 4.5/5
The included 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track offers clear dialogue levels from the center channel but the sound effects, such as when the crocodile attacks, isn’t bad though hardly dynamic or shows any depth. Still, it’s certainly a fine upgrade over whatever audio track the original DVD releases had.
OVERALL – 3.0/5
Overall, Lake Placid is a fun horror-comedy, with more emphasis on humor, that might not be the best written flick but it’s a breezy enough 82-minutes of sarcastic one-liners and characters, albeit mostly on-dimensional, that you actually enjoy watching, especially a fouled-mouthed Betty White in a small yet pivotal role. This “Collector’s Edition” Blu-ray released by Shout Factory, in the Scream Factory line, is thin on features with only a new making-of featurette to go along with some archival material, but the audio and video transfers are both well done.
Published: 06/14/2014
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.