20140412: SciFi Review--Lake Placid: the Final Chapter

Lake Placid: the Final Chapter

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2012, rated R, 86 minutes, SciFi, Horror.
2. IMDB: 3.9/10.0 from 825 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No score yet,' and 27% liked it from 168 audience ratings.
4. I watched this on the SyFy channel; that is, without any nudity or f-bombs, but with commercials.
5. Directed by: Don Michael Paul; written by: David Reed.
6. Starring: Elisabeth Roehm as Sheriff Giove, Robert England as Jim Bickerman, Yancy Butler as Reba, Paul Nicholls as Loflin, Poppy Lee Friar as Chloe, Ako Mitchell as Dennis, Benedict Smith as Max, Daniel Black as Drew.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Reba from the third installment wakes up in the supermarket where the final bloodbath took place.  A giant croc approaches her, but Reba lets it know who is the boss.


2. Some time is elided.  Reba is now working for the EPA, not entirely of her own volition (work for us or go to jail, that sort of thing).  The new law is Sheriff Giove.  Giove, Reba, and the 'tree hugger' Dennis capture a small croc for study using an anesthetic dart.  They return to the shore and talk to the folks who are building and maintaining the electric fence around the lake.  This includes Loflin.


3. The professional poacher Jim Bickerman and cohorts approach the same point when fewer people are present, then break in to kill at least one croc.  They beat up Loflin's son Max to get there.


4. Giove sets up a chick flick night with her daughter Chloe, but Chloe goes off on a fun outing with a busload of other late teenagers.  The bus goes through the gate opened by Bickerman and his allies.  They tell ghost stories and have make out sessions.  Giove, meanwhile, gets closer to Loflin.


5. The next morning, the party group at the lake is missing a member, and they call the sheriff.   The sheriff, Loflin, and Reba arrive at the now-closed gate, and talk things over with the engineer who closed it.  They attempt to rescue the idiots, er, the party goers.


6. During the process, they meet Dennis again, who was working on his project, and not at all helping the overall order of the proceedings.


7. Will Loflin be re-united with his son Max?  Will the sheriff and her daughter survive?  Will there be enough crocs left over for Lake Placid: the Final Chapter, part II?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Better than 2 and 3; not as good as the original.
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Mostly quite good, but not the CGI.


2. Sound: 7/10 The actors are well-miked, and the incidental music usually appropriate to the occasion whether it be creepy, foreboding, or pleasant.


3. Acting: 6/10 Roehm, Butler, and Nichols were fine, as was England, though his role was on the short side.  Benedict Smith, Daniel Black, and Ako Mitchell were not great, but were better than I expected.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 The dialog was not great, but was much better than one usually gets in such films.  The interconnections of the poacher with the first films was interesting, as was the connection of the poacher to the tree hugger.