Deep Cuts Horror Hit List #23 “Lake Placid”

Hey, there are folks. It is Thursday, October the ninth, and you have never seen Betty White better than the role she has in the next movie on our horror hit list. Yes, Betty White plays a woman who has a pet crocodile that's eaten everything insight. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ's we continue on our Halloween Horror hit List. We got number twenty three on the list. This has been a longtime favorite of mine and my favorite role robes. I have ever seen Betty White.

In Yes We're Talking Lake Placid from nineteen ninety nine. Listen to this runtime an hour and twenty two minutes. It's rated R and it's a horror comedy. The comedic writing in this and the acting is an amazing through line of what is a crocodile horror movie? And you've loved it for so long? I mean, you own this on DVD Blu ray.

Yeah it's not even a Blue ray.

Oh, it's just DVD.

Yeah, So I'm just only say that, I say how long? How old this thing is? We watched it there the other night. I had to pull out the DVD player.

I can't believe you still have a DVD player.

Keep one handy for emergencies, just like last night. But this is it possible. I know we're not revealing a couple others. This is certainly the funniest one so far that we put on the list. It might be the funniest one of all thirty.

Yes, I think it's actually almost comedy forward horror in the back seat.

That's a good one, you know.

And so it's just it's an entertaining movie. So if you don't want to be scared to all hell basically, and you just want to have fun and have a few thrills, I would say this is the movie for you.

It's an adventure, it's fun. It's almost a camping movie to a certain degree. With these you got this band of misfits coming together trying to figure things out in Maine. It is a fantastic ride from startivinsh Okay.

Here is the actual official synopsis. When a mysterious creature violently kills a man in a main lake, Jack Wells, the local game warden, looks into the bizarre case along with Sheriff Hank how do I say his last name? Cuff Keo. Sheriff Hank Keo and visiting palaeontologist Kelly Scott, looking for clues in a tooth that the beast left behind. Kelly and the others eventually locate the monster, a massive and vicious reptile eager to devour anything in its path.

It's so you read it, you know you read it in a more dreadful way than you actually feel. Throughout the movie. The movie sets a tone of fun and adventure and some playfulness and campy that's a good word for this one in a lot of ways. But the performers in here have accolades of the highest. This is another great cast.

So just to give you a little insight into the script itself, and then yes we'll tell you who the amazing cast was. But this was written by David E. Kelly if that sounds familiar. He was the I think pretty famous writer of Ally McBeal. So that kind of quick back and forth comedic timing you see all throughout this movie.

And does he have a horror background at all, Not that I know of.

So he is known for his comedic writing, and he is just you can hear it and once if you've ever watched Alliy mcbeil. I used to love that show back in the nineties. This is It all clicked when I read that. I had no idea before we went into research this movie. So yes, the cast Bill Pullman amazing, kind of more of a rom com guy. So you see him in a lot of rom coms. I don't want to Yeah, yeah, he's he's Oh yeah, Bill Pullman. He's got that like sheepishly sweet boy necks door good

She plays the New Yorker, the New York paleontologists, coming.

From the one that everyone hates. Betty White. Of course, Yes, Oliver Platt, who's amazing, just funny and goofy and smart all in one.

Maybe the funniest character besizes Betty White.

Yeah. Brendan Gleeson now.

That's the dude. If you don't know his name, you have seen him everywhere. This guy has won baptist Emmy's Golden Globes. He's assisted in some of the He's always the character on the side, the supporting cast member in some of the biggest movies. You will see this guy.

And then Mariska Hargate Boom, it's not SPU. Now she's actually the sexy little understudy in a in a way, I guess that's the best way to put it.

This hat ninety nine was this pre SVU.

Yes, oh yes, and she looks so she's so cute.

So cute, and but she delivered one of the lines that I have used so many times in my life. She delivers it in a perfect way. The heart wants what the heart wants when you see it, and she delivers this line. It's her moment in this movie.

I should actually say, this is one of Lake Placid is one of your absolute favorite movies. I must admit, before we started dating, I had never seen it. Somehow I just passed over this in ninety nine. I guess I was busy doing other things and you pulled it out your DVD and like here we go and now I've probably seen it ten times in the last three years because you love this movie. Also, it was directed by Steve Miner, so you look this guy.

I had no idea. This dude was essentially an understudy back in the day, like the John Carbonda's guys. Yep, he directed the sequel to Friday the Thirteenth and Halloween.

Yes, what it's Yep, he knows what he's doing, so they had it was great. They really had a good mix of stellar acting, great writing, more of a comedic screenplay, so to speak. And then you've got a guy who knows horror.

What a movie you haven't seen yet I've been talking to you about. I had no idea he until this morning that he was in charge of it. Soul man. Oh, this movie I've been telling you about a lot of you all will be offended by it. It's a movie out there that's hilarious. This white guy is trying to get into Harvard. He can't pay can't pay for it, so he's trying to go for a minority scholarship.

I feel like I shouldn't watch that.

In Blackface, the Old Hire movie.

Okay, well then I'm gonna go ahead and reiterate I should not watch that movie.

And Harvard, it's ridiculous you're recommending this movie. I recommend it to everybody. It is absurd, and it was one of my favorite movies as a kids.

Okay, okay, all right, okay, So now we've just told you how much we love this movie, how great this movie is, why we even kind of explained already why it made our list.

So here's the Rotten Tomato score forty seven percent, even worse audience score thirty seven percent.

The movie was before it's time.

Okay, it's funny you should mention that, because I am now going to go through some of the critics, and I actually was surprised because you know, when you look at some of these its people with streaming services now are all re reviewing movies, and so recent critiques are much kinder and recognized, perhaps at sometimes like a fine wine, things need to age with perspective and then you have

It's not supposed to You're right, this is more it's more driven by comedy. You might be right, and it is. It is a hilarious movie that throws in a few pretty gruesome depths by a big old crocodile, and Betty White is at the center of it all. That's cool to hear other people, Yeah recognize, Well that.

Was the critic's consensus. So okay, here's the most recent. This was actually just a few months ago. There was a critic review twenty twenty five, and I think this one sums up what we've been saying. Originally dismissed when it was released, this Killer croc film has grown into a strange B movie gem from the legendary year of nineteen ninety nine. Clocking in at under ninety minutes, Lake Placid is a quick, often hilarious watch that leaves you wondering if it's a bad monster movie or a clever

What was the line in there you said about the cast was overqualified?

Yes, you know what.

That seems like an insult, but that makes acting as everything. They took this movie and made it special. There performed Betty White as nobody could do some of the stuff she did in.

This moving quirky and fun and snarky, but in this sweet old lady way, and that's just what she always was able to deliver like nobody else.

But this is now some Golden Girls stuff. All the stuff that comes out of her mouth.

For this one hilarious. Oh yes. The other thing that this particular critic noted, which I learned as well, he talked about the alligator that it was really good if you consider this was before CGI technology and the same guy who handled this crocodile, alligator, creature, whatever you want to call it, is the same dude who was the mastermind behind Aliens in Jurassic Park. So they actually had really qualified folks looking on every aspect of this film, which I did not know.

I think about it ninety nine. You watch a movie of space movie alien whatever. The graphics and all that stuff has done so much better. This is not one where you We've watched some going back and movies we love geez, I like this. Listen. Yeah, this is not one where you ever feel like the crocodile is scary how it's supposed to be. It's always believable. Yeah, witn't needs to be believable, And frankly, it's not. It's a

There was a scene where the creature throws Bridget Fonda's character in the air. I laughed out loud. I don't know if I was supposed to laugh, but so I'm saying it's sometimes it's funny, but in a good way. Funny because you're laughing with it, almost because you're hoping and thinking that the director intended it to be funny as well as a little thrilling at the same time. So I've got some others. So I loved that one.

You have a little bit away there, But okay, sound a little harsh.

This other one, that Lake Placid is a goofy time waster with some serious bite that's entirely more fun than it should be. So these are some of the negative ones. They're still acknowledging. Its entertaining.

They're almost mad to acknowledge.

You know what.

I had a good time, Yes, yes, And so here's one. In short, this is a great example of a late nineties foul mouthed monster movie with all kinds of laughs, one or two scares, and a firm grasp on the kind of movie it is. Check it out.

For sure. I didn't think it was foun you know, most of the foulness came from Betty.

Water, which made it hilarious. So yes that I feel like those were actually despite the bad Rotten Tomato score and Roger Ebert, I believe, gave it one star. When I looked at the reviews themselves, they were actually, I think, pretty fair and honest and acknowledging the entertaining value of the film.

That is what I think so much of what we look for in film. We're trying to be entertained. We're not I understand some people looking for deeper meanings and looking for Oh, that's sloppy writing. Sometimes it's just okay to have sloppy writing, not looking for meaning, and that's just a big oversized crocodile ridiculously in Maine for some reason with Bridget Fond.

Which makes it even funnier. Yes, yes, okay, when we come back, we're gonna go over all our who's it for? Who's it not? Food drink pairing, and where you can watch it along with the t's for number twenty one on the list. Welcome back everyone to our You didn't even give our name out at the beginning of this podcast.

I did, I says our horror hit list.

I said, exactly what the deep cuts our horror list. We're at number twenty three and we are serving up some Lake Placid. Who doesn't love a giant crocodile like creature eating people in the state of Maine. It just makes perfect sense with a perfect cast, and despite some of the lower percentages that we think it was unfairly given, most of the critics made note of just how deliciously fun this movie is. It is awesome. So look, who is this for? Anyone who wants to have a good time.

Say we call it gory, but you watch action movies that have more killing in it than this one does. It is this is a This is a comedy that has a few killings in it. Yes, this is a comedy that has a monster snapping the head off a couple of people. I'm trying to think of all the all the all of the deaths in there. That's not a lie. No, it doesn't go on some rampage or anything like that.

And as long as you don't mind some cursing in front of your older kids, this one's just a fun one.

And it's not again, it's not overly vulgar. And how again, Betty White provides so much.

Of that and stuff, somehow it softens the bad word for her. Yeah, it's like, okay, she's earned the right to say those things. She's lived enough life she gets to all right. My opinion, who it's not for? If you don't like to laugh, if you don't like a campy horror fleck, or if you really are in the mood to be scared. This is not that scary. This shouldn't. This is not for you if you want a horror movie to go ooh, I really want to be scared tonight.

You know, this isn't for anybody that takes themselves in the world too seriously. If you were sitting here looking at a movie and looking for deeper meaning, and why couldn't they do that? And this is sometimes there are movies you just sit down and have a good time. It's just a ride. This is a ride you get on from the beginning. I think within two or three minutes you go Holy hell. And then some drama goes down immediately with Bridget Fonda and yeah, so that dynamic take,

She's uptight.

Yeah, but she plays it up. We've seen these characters in movies before. She embraced it. She went with it. This is a compliment I give you sometimes on puns and whatnot. I said, I can't do that, and you embrace it like she just embraces what this is supposed to be. I'm gonna go with it and have a good time. Nobody take this too.

Seriously exactly, And I think that's the cool thing. And you just hit the nail on the head. You know, some people want. This is just a fun fun you know, you know, I would say, if you've had a tough day at the office, you've been stressed out over whatever lately, if you just want to not think and laugh and kind of have some thrills, this is the film for you,

Movies mainly for us when you have to be in the water, Yes, because they can't shoot anything underwater in the dark, can't see a damn thing, so you have to you have to have it during the daytime. So that's yes, that is absolutely a pro tip of ours if you want to do that. Space sometimes works space movie because they're up there, they're in ships, and all the ships have to be lit, so there's like electronic

How many times we wanted to watch movies so badly but it's set in the dark night and we're trying to watch and the glare from the sun. You're like, babe, we have to wait until tonight. We cannot watch this right now. It doesn't matter. So yes, this one can watch. You can watch any time of day, anytime of night. You'll have a blast. So that's fun. Now, where can you watch it right now? Unless you have a DVD like TJ does and the accompanying DVD player that you need to play such.

Dv Yes, you're right, it's ours.

It's ours now. I'm sorry. Our DVD player comes in handy when it comes to this one. But also again we talked about Paramount Plus AMC Plus. If you have those add ons to any of your services like Hulu, Amazon Prime, you can watch it there all right, So we hope you enjoy watching Lake Placid as much as we did our next episode, our next horror hit list movie. It would be I said number twenty one earlier. I misspoke.

Oh, are we going to tell that story about our place?

Yes, when we in the next episode, we have a actual personal story because we just moved recently that was so closely tied to this movie. We're still a little freaked out, all right, So how's that for a tease. Thanks for listening though to this episode of Amy and DJ. I'm Amy Roboch alongside DJ Holmes. We will talk to you soon.