The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course - Movie Review

Rating: 3 out of 5

Steve Irwin brings his popular Animal Planet antics to the big screen in The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course. Irwin plays a hardly fictionalized version of himself in which he tackles the wildest of outback prey. The film's poorly constructed plot centers on a crocodile that has gobbled a key piece from a U.S. spy satellite that has blown up and fallen into the Australian bush. The CIA wants it back so they send some bumbling agents down under to find it. Bad news for them, because Steve Irwin and his wife Terri think they're poachers who want the crocodile dead in order to make handbags and belts.

The plot doesn't matter (and even Crocodile Dundee took care of that). Irwin is the real show here - everything else just distracts from him. The movie is just another episode of his popular television series. While in the Outback, he gets up close and personal with spiders, lizards, crocodiles, and snakes. Speaking directly to the camera, he gives us a fairly useful education about these different animals while Terri provides additional commentary (think commercial spokesperson). It's all very interesting stuff and Irwin's humor and quick wit is enough to keep the lessons entertaining and the action scenes believable.

Unfortunately, I find it hard to justify spending the money to see The Crocodile Hunter in a movie theater when the exact same stuff can be seen for free on television (or for the price of cable, anyway). Yes, the action is larger than life on the big screen, though the aspect ratio for Irwin's scenes has been shrunk a bit -- I guess in order to make it appear closer to watching television. Widescreen is utilized only when the movie shifts to the meaningless secondary plot - too bad. I highly recommend Irwin, but not in the way this film showcases him. Crikey!

Spider: It's what's for dinner.

Facts and Figures

Year: 2002

Run time: 90 mins

In Theaters: Friday 12th July 2002

Box Office USA: $28.3M

Box Office Worldwide: $33.1M

Distributed by: MGM Pictures

Reviews

Contactmusic.com: 3 / 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 53%
Fresh: 44 Rotten: 39

IMDB: 5.4 / 10

Cast & Crew

Director: John Stainton

Producer: Judi Bailey, John Stainton, Arnold Rifkin

Screenwriter: Holly Goldberg Sloan, John Stainton

Starring: Steve Irwin as Himself, Terri Irwin as Herself, Magda Szubanski as Brozzie Drewitt, David Wenham as Sam Flynn, Lachy Hulme as Robert Wheeler, Aden Young as Ron Buckwhiler, Kenneth Ransom as Vaughan Archer, Kate Beahan as Jo Buckley, Steve Bastoni as Deputy Director Reynolds, Steven Vidler as Deputy Director Ansell, Alyson Standen as Anne Milking, Alex Ruiz as CIA Agent, David Franklin as CIA Agent, Robert Coleby as Dr. Weinberger

Also starring: Bindi Sue Irwin, Judi Bailey, John Stainton, Arnold Rifkin, Holly Goldberg Sloan