Lake Placid

• Cert:
• Cat.no: 15019 DVD
• Running time: 78 minutes
• Year: 1999
• Pressing: 2001
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 15 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: English for the hearing-impaired
• Widescreen: 2.35:1
• 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: Yes
• Disc Format: DVD 9
• Price: £19.99
• Extras: 3 TV Spots, Featurette, Mini Cast Biographies

Director:

Steve Miner

(Forever Young, Friday The 13th Parts 2 & 3, Halloween H20, House, Lake Placid, My Father The Hero, Soul Man, Texas Rangers, Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken, TV: Chicago Hope, Dawson’s Creek, Diagnosis Murder, The Wonder Years)

Producer:

Screenplay:

Music:

Cast:

Jack Wells: Bill Pullman
Kelly Scott: Bridget Fonda
Hector Cyr: Oliver Platt
Sheriff Hank Keough: Brendan Gleeson
Mrs Delores Bickerman: Betty White
Kevin: Adam Arkin

I have reservations sometimes over films that are short and Lake Placid clocks in at a mere 78 minutes, although on this occasion less is more as it means nothing gets bogged down in lengthy explanations and after museum palaeontologist Kelly Scott (Bridget Fonda) finds that her boss (Chicago Hope‘s Adam Arkin) has been sleeping with her colleague and best friend, she wants to get away and where better than to head to Maine and inspect a pre-historic-like tooth pulled out of the upper half of a deep sea diver, which was all that was left after he went swimming and was pulled out by Sheriff Hank Keough (Brendan Gleeson).

It’s a lightweight film as Fish and Game‘s Jack Wells (Bill Pullman, sneering at most things in his usual way) leads the investigation, while Fonda shrieks and gasps at everything like a girlie. There’s comic-sparring between Gleeson and sarcastic eccentric crocodile expert Hector Cyr (Oliver Platt) who jets in because he likes to investigate them. And don’t forget Golden Girls‘ Betty White as Delores Bickerman, a dotty old woman who, in one scene, taunts the nasty big croc by feeding one of her cows to it.

If you go down to the woods today…

The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio and director Steve Miner composes the frame well – I’d hate to see a fullscreen version of this and I understand the original rental DVD was released that way. My only gripe is some minor sparklies in a few scenes. Other than that it looks very good, but then there’s no reason why it shouldn’t. The average bitrate is 6.19b/s, closing in on 8Mb/s.

The sound does exactly what you’d expect. Quiet bits are quiet, while the sound FX kick in whenever there’s some action, although it’s far from original and you’ve heard it all before.

The only extras are 3 TV Spots, each lasting 30 seconds, a bog-standard 5-minute Featurette that tells you nothing once you’ve watched the film and a few Mini Cast Biographies.

There are 15 chapters to the film – not generally enough but then it’s not a long film, the subtitles are only in English for the hard of hearing and the menus are static and silent.

This is a DVD that I’d recommend as a rental because there isn’t a great deal of special FX to it – although what is done is effective, so once you’ve seen it it’s doubtful you’ll return for subsequent viewings and the extras are very limited.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL