Themes: Fish Out of Water, Cons and Scams, Filmmaking
Main Cast: Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski, Jere Burns, Jonathan Banks, Serge Cockburn
Release Year: 2001
Country: AU/US
Run Time: 92 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Director Simon Wincer teams up with his fellow Australian and star Paul Hogan for this second follow-up to the 1986 sleeper hit. Mick Dundee (Hogan) is still making his home in the tiny outback town of Walkabout Creek with his significant other Sue (Linda Kozlowski), and now joined by their young son Mikey (Serge Cockburn). Crocodile hunting has been made illegal, and Mick has been reduced to wrestling the animals for tourists. When an opportunity comes up for Sue to take over as L.A. bureau chief of a newspaper owned by her father, Mick and family cross the Pacific to California. There, Mick and his son's encounters with the natives cause more than a few cross-cultural mishaps, including a massive traffic jam on the freeway when the Dundees attempt an animal rescue. In the meantime, Mick becomes an amateur sleuth helping to probe the mysterious death of his wife's predecessor at the newspaper. Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles was inspired by star Hogan's real-life move to Los Angeles. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
It's unclear, outside of a mounting sense of irrelevance and career inertia, what prompted Paul Hogan to revive his Crocodile Dundee franchise 13 years after the last installment. Capitalizing on the popularity of crocodile hunter Steve Irwin, perhaps? As the main financier (and recipient of profits) of the first movies, Hogan certainly didn't need whatever money it might scrape up. Still, as much as the decision would seem to invite vicious barbs, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles is not nearly the laughingstock it could have been, perhaps because it has the sense not to try very hard, in keeping with the laid-back persona of the title character. Played-out franchises tend to embarrass themselves by slipping into vulgar caricature, but this third Dundee movie is notable for how quiet it is, how content to amble along at the slow pace of the old-school culture clashes that launched the series. While this is no reason to recommend the movie, especially when the frittered time forces a hasty conclusion, it does give the film some sense of being above the fray. More wrinkled, but essentially no worse for the wear, Hogan has some fun with his own status as part of an old order of extinct animal hunters and decidedly 20th century male role models. Unfortunately, the movie itself also retains this ancient mind set, leaving intrepid reporter Linda Kozlowski little to do but try to avoid looking old, while Hogan solves her newspaper investigation. He has to do something with the nearest croc a good 6,000 miles away. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Paul Rodriguez - Diego; Aida Turturro - Jean Ferraro; Alec Wilson - Jacko; David Ngoombujarra - Arthur; Clare Carey - Skater; Kaitlin Hopkins - Miss Mathis; Slim de Grey - Priest
Credit
Ben Bauer - Art Director, Bill Booth - Art Director, Liz Thomas - Art Director, Lisa London - Casting, Maura Fay - Casting, Catherine Stroud - Casting, Conrad Hool - Co-producer, Perry Katz - Co-producer, Marion Boyce - Costume Designer, Bob Donaldson - First Assistant Director, Simon Wincer - Director, David Eggby - Second Unit Director, Terry Blythe - Editor, Kathy Morgan - Executive Producer, Steve Robbins - Executive Producer, Jim Reeve - Executive Producer, Basil Poledouris - Composer (Music Score), Ted Chu - Camera Operator, Leslie Binns - Production Designer, David Burr - Cinematographer, Paul Hogan - Producer, Lance Hool - Producer, Brian Pearce - Special Effects, Thomas Brandau - Sound/Sound Designer, Ben Osmo - Sound/Sound Designer, Chris Anderson - Stunts, Ernie F. Orsatti - Stunts, Paul Hogan - Screenwriter, Eric Abrams - Screenwriter, Matthew Berry - Screenwriter, Ted Chu - Second Unit Director Of Photography, David Eggby - Additional Cinematography, David Eggby - Second Unit Camera
At the beginning of the film, protagonist Michael "Crocodile" Dundee (Paul Hogan) is living in the Australian Outback with Sue Charlton (Linda Kozlowski) and their young son Mikey (Serge Cockburn). Crocodile hunting has been made illegal; therefore Mick has been reduced to wrestling crocodiles for the entertainment of tourists, having as his rival in the business another Outback survivalist named Jacko (Alec Wilson). When an opportunity comes for Sue to become Los Angeles bureau chief of a newspaper owned by her father, Mick and his family cross the Pacific to California.
In America, Mick and his son's encounters with the locals cause cross-cultural mishaps. Mick becomes an amateur sleuth helping to probe the mysterious death of his wife's predecessor at the newspaper, while Mikey attends a local school, where he quickly impresses his classmates and teacher with his outback survival skills.
It is revealed that a film studio that the dead reporter had been investigating is about to make a sequel to the action filmLethal Agent, despite the title's previous commercial failures. Mick becomes suspicious when several paintings from Southern Europe are brought onto the set; although at first he suspects drug smuggling, the pictures themselves are revealed to be missing art from a museum in former Yugoslavia. They are to appear in the movie as mere props, to be publicly 'destroyed' in a scene in which they are set on fire, at which time they will have been exchanged for copies.
Attempting to secure one of the paintings as evidence, Mick, Sue, and Jacko run afoul of the studio director and his thugs. Using the studio's props and two lions used in the filmings to defeat the gangsters, Mick and Sue solve the case and return to Australia, where they are officially married. Jacko brings Mikey's teacher with him.
This film was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Remake or Sequel.[3] According to Rotten Tomatoes only 12% of 77 critics rated the movie favorably.[4]
