Dinocroc

Plot synopsis:
A North African dinosaur, related to the crocodile, is found which could grow up to fifty feet long. Dr. Campbell (Bruce Weitz) uses its DNA to create two hybrids of it with a modern-day crocodile at Paula Kennedy's Genetic Research Co. (Gereco) lab. One creature kills Dr. Campbell's assistant and the other creature before escaping. This information is kept from Sheriff Harper (Napier) by Kennedy, stating the dead creature killed Campbell's assistant. His daughter, county dog catcher Diane Harper, helps her ex welding artist, Tom Banning, and his 12-year-old brother Michael (Jake Thomas) find their three legged dog, Lucky, who was lost a few days earlier.
Meanwhile, Kennedy sends a trapper to feed Dinocroc (the animal still being on Gereco Property). The trapper uses Lucky as bait, but Lucky runs away and Dinocroc quickly devours the trapper soon after. Later in the morning Diane and Tom find Lucky running around in the woods and try to catch him unaware that Dinocroc is lurking nearby, but Dr. Campbell saves them by shooting at it. Kennedy then hires an Australian crocodile hunter, Dick Sydney (Costas Mandylor), to help kill the Dinocroc. Later that night, Michael sneaks out to look for Lucky when he comes face to face with the creature. Dinocroc chases Michael through the forest into a tool shed sitting above water. The Dinocroc then gets under the shed and engulfs Michael from below, leaving only his head.
The next day, not having noticed that Michael has gone, Tom, Diane, Dick, and Campbell find that the creature is headed toward the town's lakeside beach. It kills 3 people, the last one being Campbell. In a press conference after the incident Kennedy lies that Campbell was not part of Gereco. Sheriff Harper then plans to kill the creature with his police force and Diane. While looking for it, they stumble upon Michael's damaged bike and Michael's remains in the shed. Tom, who knows Michael is missing, appears on his motorbike, then speeds away after seeing what is left of his dead brother. After trying to get drunk, Tom cries loudly over his brother and Diane comes to comfort him along with Lucky. Meanwhile, 5 of Sheriff Harper's officers are killed by the Dinocroc.
The next day, Tom, Diane and others devise a plan to trap Dinocroc in a tunnel and gas him to death. Sheriff Harper uses some dogs for bait, which Diane and Tom object to, so Harper has them handcuffed and put in the police car. The two escape and use a blowtorch to release the chained dogs, while the creature chases them. They trap Dinocroc in the tunnel and gas it, seemingly killing it.
While a local news crew is taping Kennedy (who arrived after the creature's death) inside the tunnel, telling the reporter false stories about the events, Dinocroc awakens, eats her whole and comes after Tom and Diane, who are left after the news crew drives away quickly. After hiding under a truck they hear a train and lure Dinocroc across the tracks. It is rammed by a passing train, followed by Tom stabbing it in the eye with a small pipe as revenge for Michael's death. As the sun rises the next day, Diane and Tom drive away, contemplating leaving for a vacation together. Then the camera pans slowly back as their truck passes and Dinocroc is seen walking weakly across the road still alive.

Tags: violence, revenge, romantic

Review:
A mixed matched handful of people go out to stop it, before it kills any more.In addition to fairly weak acting, and visual effects that wouldn't fool a four year old, Dinocroc also has several blatant Jaws rip-offs.
These movies are usually made for no more than a couple of million dollars, but Roger Corman has made so many that together they probably cost as much as Titanic.
Then there's an Australian croc hunter, loud and obnoxious, but with a tender side, blah blah blah.The film moves along okay until the ending, which is not only utterly unbelievable, but anti-climactic as well.Overall, a somewhat below average creature feature, but the CGI was perhaps a bit better than usual.
This is a low budget Roger Corman horror/creature flick.
We only get a few glimpses of the huge two-legged dinosaur descendant and some of the best "kill" scenes in a small budget film.My favorite scene is of a moronic character trying to use a three legged dog for bait and becomes croc food himself.
Roger Corman's DINOCROC is a true b-movie in the grand tradition of atomic age monster movies.
And make no mistake about it; this is an old-fashioned creature feature and not a typical nature gone amok/killer animal movie.
The Dinocroc may be a prehistoric Supercroc but gene manipulation has evolved it into a two-legged dinosaur-like creature that makes for a pretty cool movie monster.
The film clocks in at a scant 82 minutes (plus almost another 4 minutes of needlessly long end credits to pad out the running time) zipping along at a breezy pace without getting too bogged down with lots of boring exposition, moralizing, etc.
The fact that they didn't get on my nerves by being annoying as hell or by constantly doing incredibly stupid things as characters in so many horror movies of today tend to do, especially the low budget variety, is also a major plus.
The movie also has one of the best kills I've seen in a movie in quite some time and it happens to a character that I didn't think was going to get it especially in such a brutal fashion.
At times it seemed very reminiscent of the abomination that was the Tristar Godzilla but the Dinocroc is actually a much more fearsome looking beast what with teeth outside of and on top of its mouth and this constant mad dog gleam in its eyes.
For a low budget monster movie the CGI was actually pretty darn good.
Even at it's worst it isn't bad enough to completely take you out of the movie unless you're just a stickler for computer effects.
Much of the CGI is actually on par with or better than that found in some movies with astronomically higher budgets like say THE MUMMY RETURNS and I suspect Dinocroc's budget was probably only slightly more than the amount spent on that film for Brendan Fraser's hair.
If so, I hope they give it a bit higher budget and allow the Dinocroc a bit more interaction with the characters next time other than jumping out and going `Rahr!' every so often as it does for most of the movie.
I wanted more Dinocroc action.With one more rewrite and a little more budget I think DINOCROC could have been a great monster movie but it will just have to settle for being a fun guilty pleasure and there's nothing wrong with that.
What if I were to create a really really cheap and crappy looking Dino and crocodile polygon model in Maya and then proceed to cut and paste that into an amateur video clip having people scream and getting eaten by the same thing?
How can anyone even believe that an utterly fake CGI dinocroc that looks completely out of place, would influence the events in this movie?
I know that its B-grade, low budget and all but the producers could do better than making a piece of crap that no one will ever seen see or sit through.
For example the scene where the hunters mentions "I got spiders on my dick", "I like dick", playing in the mud scene, or a bar scene where a professional dinocroc hunters main job is a snake charmer.How about other terribly incoherent scenes featuring a woman, Diane who wants to loose her virginity to a boyfriend who walks like he wears women's panties three sizes too small.
All these strange scene could easily be re-dubbed and billed as a comedy.Here in my local town, the cineplex theaters had been advertising for months about Dinocroc, and I am glad I didn't watch it because I later found out it was shown only for 1 or 2 days before it was canceled.
I suspected that Dinocroc was not a good movie looking at the preview.
It features the leg of Dinocroc that looks like a child wearing green pajamas and slippers with claws and walks up and down like a 2 year old.
Such as Diane's boyfriend who walks like he had an advanced case of syphilis makes you wonder what the poor woman sees in this guy who looks drunk even before he get to drink beer.
The panties man looked more more interesting than the entire movie of Dinocroc.
She loves animals, can't even put them down when the sheriff ( also her dad) tells her to put down the dogs to make more room.Her on again off again boyfriend Tommy then helps her and the idiotic gene- manipulation plant to battle a creature that is half-dinosaur and half-crocodile and twice as deadly.The most interesting character by far is an Aussie herpatologist and hunter named Dick.
Whenever he's on-screen, your attention goes right to him.Throughout the film, Dick and Tommy seem to have a 'special' relationship, even though Tommy sleeps with the animal control lady once.Overall, an interesting watch and not bad for a straight-to-video movie.
On the other hand, I was very mixed on the story, it didn't ever bore me, it did start off well and it deserve credit for not being too derivative of Jurassic Park, on the other hand it has a very standard concept which was partly why I was never surprised at what went on in the film, the attack scenes are not suspenseful and come across as goofy instead and the the climax is abrupt and just not convincing on any level.
Apart from the scenery, Dinocroc was lacking for me visually also, the editing is not as choppy as similar movies I've seen but there are moments where it is rather obviously done which detracts from any kind of nail-biting terror or suspense.
The script is horribly cheesy also, while the characters are stereotypical and made to do irritating things(like the man using his dog as bait but is still killed) and the acting is bad, especially from a bland Matthew Borlenghi and an over-the-top Costas Mandylor.
It's not Roger Corman that I hate, it's this god-awful movie.
Which is another thing, the CGI sucked out loud; I hate this movie dreadfully.
The Dinocroc itself looked great but i thought the movie itself needed a little bit more weight as in action and violence because whenever the croc is shown or is in a fight scene not very much goes on except the croc is shown and the croc either kills or runs off in a repeated process.
Jane Longenecker was hot which is a plus and the acting was better than average and the most surprising thing is that the croc looked fleshy instead of like a cartoon coughs* curse of the komodo*coughs.
A grieving brother (Borlenghi) then sets about taking revenge with the assistance of Aussie game-hunter doubling as an ichthyologist (Mandylor) and Corman veteran Charles Napier as the local sheriff.Joanna Pacula's role as the firm's chief could have been a stroke of deft casting, but she receives so little air time, her role is reduced to a caricature of the stereotypical villain.
But even more disappointing is the reliance on CGI animation and post-production effects to create the action sequences with the "Dinocroc".
Much of the camp quality of the Corman-inspired monster movie was in the flimsy, plastic construction of the title beast.
If there's any redemption at all, you might draw visual relief in the fresh-faced and feisty Jane Longenecker who in spite of her lower order billing, is the constant presence throughout (and much better looking than either Mandylor or the "dinocroc")..
the film looks like as if the director was forced to make this movie by some gang of terrorists .
i mean isn't he ashamed of looking at peoples faces after they have seen his movie ?
the dinocroc looks as if it was made in power point and pretty much cut-and-paste stuff.
Overall, worth renting if you enjoy the genre.1.5 (out of 5) Rated: "R" for some creature violence/gore, and language.Summary: DinoCroc is what you get when you mix SNAKEHEAD TERROR and CROCODILE 2: DEATH SWAMP.
Most of the films are very good, like 'Mud,' 'Jack Reacher,' 'Bandits' and 'Flight,' but this one is awful.The only redeeming value is Jane Longnecker, who is a cute, petite woman whom every man adores.
Roger Corman makes entertaining movies, and he's made several giant monster movies for the sci-fi channel.
The classic style that didn't work includes the monster not showing itself, lots of people shots that are just fillers, and slow story development.The special effects croc is a joke.
The later productions has much better quality.I couldn't warm up to this movie, and this is not one of the best of super monster series that came from Roger Corman's production..
In this Corman movie, the sets, props, and the cinematography look much better than usual.
As for the special effects (mostly CGI work), for a low budget movie they are impressive.
While it's true that the dinocroc looks real bad when it's seen in full light, when seen underwater or in darkness it is an acceptable special effect.
First of all, the special effects looked like it was done by a twelve year old.
This is just a joke of a movie,they lost me already at the opening scene (Spoilerwarning) dangerous creature kills other creature in his cage,this is watched by a scientist that works there on a monitor and guess what she does,well lets go in to the cage to check the stuff out,omg how dumb do those writers think human beings are come on thats the same like jumping in a fish tank with a great white shark because it ate your goldfish...Pretty useless and even more dumber.And i will not even talk about the cast because they aren't worth the effort.
Only good thing where the cgi that is better then average for these kinda low-budget movies.If these kinda things don't bother you go see it,but be warned if your IQ is above 60 you will probably hate it..
I'm surprised Dinocroc doesn't have a somewhat elevated reputation within the realm of low-budget sci-fi monster movies.
The script tells a familiar story of science gone wrong as a genetic experiment results in a ravenous prehistoric pseudo-crocodile which proceeds to terrorize the people of a small town.
The monster--that would be the Dinocroc of the title--looks decent for a low-budget creation and is appropriately fearsome.
The big difference between Dinocroc's script and that of many similar features is that a great deal of time is invested in the main characters, who generally come off as rather more realistic than the types who usually populate such films.
Obviously Dinocroc isn't a classic and it is very much a b-movie, it is nonetheless much better than some of its contemporaries and worth a watch by fans of the genre..
Now rather than reveal any more of the story and risk spoiling the film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this movie was pretty much what I expected from a Roger Corman film in that it had a definite B-movie quality to it.
In any case, while I don't consider this to be a good movie by any means I suppose it wasn't terribly bad either and so I rate it as just slightly below average..
I like me a bad movie now and then but this one was TOO BORING.
It's one of the first kills in the movie and a bad way to kick things off.
First of all the movie is starring Lizzy McGuire's brother as the annoying little kid that goes looking for his lost 3 legged dog.
And heres another point for pondering, why do they show the Dinocroc on the back of the movie box being enormous and actually in the water?
The only thing worse then the acting was the end of course the heroes spend about what seems like 2 hours talking and planning some long elaborate way of killing the dinocroc only to have it fail and kill it in an ordinary way that could have taken about 15 seconds to come up with.
Dinocroc is set in a small US town where Gereco laboratories has it's headquarters, chief scientist Dr. Campbell (Bruce Weitz) has genetically engineered a live creature using DNA from a Dinosaur ancestor of the modern day Crocodile.
After a laboratory accident the Dinocroc creature escapes into the nearby reserve, the top brass at Gereco hire world famous Australian big game hunter Dick Sydney (Costas Mandylor) to kill the beast & keep bad publicity down to a minimum.
However animal control operative Diane Harper (Jane Longenecker) & her dad the local Sheriff (Charles Napier) discover that the vicious Dinocroc is loose & take over the remit to kill it before it eats anymore innocent people...Directed by Kevin O'Niell I was pretty surprised to find out that Dinocroc wasn't an original Sy-Fy Channel film but was far less surprised to learn that cheap rip-off merchant Roger Corman was behind it, apparently had the working title Primevil & it's just about as bad as any of those awful Sy-Fy Channel creature features.
The script for Dinocroc takes a little bit of Jurassic Park (1993) with it's DNA Dinosaur cloning aspect & adds a whole dollop of Lake Placid (1999) as a small community is terrorised by a giant Crocodile monster thing & it's up to a big game hunter & the local Sheriff amongst other's to try & stop it.
The story makes no great sense, there is no explanation given as to why this company Gereco are cloning prehistoric Dinosaur Crocodiles or why that stupid scientist decides to just open the door to it's cell & just sort of stand there totally unarmed, what did she think was going to happen?
With a throughly predictable & sometimes embarrassing (the montage as Tom drowns his sorrows over his brother's death is really bad) script Dinocroc fails to deliver any sort of entertainment value, the attack scenes are dull & quite why the Sheriff didn't just call the army in I'll never know.The CGI computer effects are average for this type of fare, while not the worst looking monster out there Dinocroc is hardly convincing.
That moment raised a smile from me & is probably the best part of the film.Dinocroc has reasonable production values but nothing special, the acting isn't that good with seasoned actor Charles Napier slumming it here, Costas Mandylor turns up as the Australian hunter a couple of years before his star role in the Saw franchise started in Saw III (2006).Dinocroc is terrible, it's as bad as it's Sy-Fy Channel counterparts & offers nothing new.
Gereco Biotech company is fooling around with growth hormone research, accidentally releasing a baby crocodile which is evolving at an accelerating rate.B-movie cast add a deal of fun to this run of the mill "genetic mistake monster movie".
This DinoCroc spends most of the movie walking on two legs like a dinosaur.
His little brother Michael spends the whole movie looking for his lost, three-legged dog Lucky (the assumption is that Lucky was an early DinoCroc victim), and you're kind of rooting against the kid too.
This movie also has the mad scientist from the amoral genetic research company, the "crocodile expert" who thinks he knows how to capture/kill it, the sheriff who doesn't want anyone else to tell him how to handle the situation and all the usual monster-gone-amok movie stereotypes.
Overall, despite all the ranting, you could do a lot worse making a killer-dinosaur/crocodile movie than this.
The monster effects aren't "Jurassic Park" quality, but are better than most lower-budget monster movies.
"Dinocroc" wasn't as bad as it could've been, considering where it comes from.**SPOILERS**Gereco Labs has been experimenting with a growth hormone found in the DNA of a newly-discovered prehistoric crocodile, which escapes during an accident into the neighboring community.
As the townspeople nearby start dying, the three team up to take down the now fully-grown crocodile from rampaging through the town.The Good News: Another one of the Sci-Fi Channel original creature features, this one is one of the better ones.
At times, the Dinocroc is actually a fearsome looking beast what with teeth outside of and on top of its mouth and this constant mad dog gleam in its eyes.
The Dinocroc also had a great way of also jumping out of everywhere to attack a victim, making for some small jumps here and there.
A scene that was quite annoying was, in a moment of monumental stupidity, the two lead characters intentionally sabotage a plan to capture the Dinocroc because a few dogs from the local animal shelter get used a bait.
It doesn't add to the suspense of the scene, which is what it was intended to be, and it makes you wonder why they have to rush to get out of the creature's way when they could've trapped the creature.The Final Verdict: While certainly not the worst movie Roger Corman has ever attached his name to, this isn't his greatest either.