NOT QUITE CRIKEY
A scene from 'The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course'
Courtesy Photo
"THE CROCODILE HUNTER: COLLISION COURSE"
2 stars 90 minutes | Rated: PG
Opened: Friday, July 12, 2002
Directed by John Stainton

Starring Steve Irwin, Terri Irwin, David Wenham, Lachy Hulme, Magda Szubanski, Kate Beahan



 COUCH CRITIQUE
   SMALL SCREEN SHRINKAGE: 10%
   LETTERBOX: NOT NECESSARY

Half this movie is a staged version of the TV show, so you might as well have waited to see it on video anyway.

   VIDEO RELEASE: 12.17.2002



 REVIEW CROSS-REFERENCE








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'The Crocodile Hunter' protects a croc from CIA agents he mistakes for poachers in slapped-together comedy

By Rob Blackwelder

A viable, if amusingly absurd, comedy concept lies behind "The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course." What if a big, mean croc in the wilds of Australia swallowed a top-secret data beacon from a crashed spy satellite? And what if Steve Irwin -- that charismatically obnoxious daredevil naturalist from the Animal Planet cable channel -- thought the CIA goons sent to retrieve it were actually poachers trying to kill the croc?

If you've ever seen "The Crocodile Hunter" show (and let's face it, you wouldn't be considering seeing the movie if you hadn't), you can probably see the screwball, sketch-comedy appeal of a clueless Irwin engaged in a game of backwater cat-and-mouse with city-slicker spies he thinks are out to skin one of his precious wild animals.

But no matter how firmly director John Stainton has his tongue in his cheek, the fact remains that a wacky concept does not a movie make. Split into two distinct narratives, Irwin spends his half of the film doing exactly what he does on TV -- catching critters, talking to the camera incessantly and with unbridled hyperactive enthusiasm, and saying "Crikey!" a lot. His scenes are even shot in 1.33:1 aspect ratio -- the shape of a TV screen instead of a movie screen -- which proves distracting when the film goes wide-screen to follow the CIA guys (David Wenham and Lachy Hulme), whose scenes are staged like a goof on a Tom Clancy flick.

For the first 3/4th of "Collision Course," these two paths barely cross at all, which makes most of the picture play as if you're watching someone else channel-surf between Irwin's TV show and a bad spy movie on the Cinemax. When the plots do converge, a few laughs can be found in the way Irwin narrates his showdown with the CIA guys as if they were just part of his program.

"These blokes are determined!" he exclaims to the camera while fighting with one of them on the top of a moving truck.

Another good chuckle comes from a scene at CIA headquarters in which top officials conclude that Irwin and his co-star wife Terri must be enemy agents because their globetrotting has taken them to political hot spots around the world.

But you'd have to be a hardcore fan of "The Crocodile Hunter" to not be bored and insulted by most of this movie, which on the whole is a script-less, aimless, badly-acted, slapped-together attempt to cash in on Irwin's 15 minutes of fame.




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