Jeers, mate!

CROCODILE DUNDEE IN LOS ANGELES (2001)

Reviewed By Jerry Saravia

 

Eddie Murphy made this movie in 1984. It was called "Beverly Hills Cop," an uneven, fitfully funny fish-out-of-water action-comedy. Paul Hogan did his bit in the original "Crocodile Dundee" in 1986, and then returned for a mildly entertaining sequel in 1988. Considering both Dundee movies scored well at the box-office, it is amazing it has taken a whole decade to make a sequel so bereft of anything remotely comic.

Paul Hogan once again returns as the formidable crocodile hunter, Mick Dundee, who still remains naive about the world and pop culture (though the latter is not a bad thing to be naive about). He still resides in the Subaru Outback, though he is unable to catch a crocodile. He is also still living with Sue (Linda Kozlowski), the Newsday journalist, though they are not legally married. They do have a son who worries about razorbacks. So far, not too bad. That is until the filmmakers decide to take the family out to the big city, yet again. The reason? Sue has a job in L.A. at her father's bureau. Whoa! Her assignment is to investigate a movie studio that is making sequels to "Lethal Agent" though they are all financial disasters - sort of what Paramount is doing with Crocodile Dundee. Is the sequel business a front for something else? Of course, and Mick Dundee does all the hard work while Sue sits behind the desk. Meanwhile, we have product placements for the Paramount tour and Wendy's. There are also one-note, thinly veiled jokes about Mike Tyson and meditating, coffee enemas and George Hamilton, gay bars, Hispanic gangs, cartoonish villains, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, and chimps that can't follow directions on a movie set. Using a chimp in a movie sequel is the cry of DESPERATION. Lest we not forget that there are a few women in the movie who find Mick attractive, though he remains naive about their suggestive remarks. How's this for a different kind of sequel - the setting is the Outback where Mick decides whether or not to legally marry Sue while fending off alluring women's advances from his tours, as well as training his son in the secrets of the wilderness? Not funny? Well, then you can see why a return to this shallow character was not a great idea in the first place.

Like its once charismatic star, "Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles" is the equivalent of a flatline.