Looks like
we've got us a stinker
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|
Paul Hogan
revives his most famous character with disastrous results. Avoid
at all costs.
Nigel
Bell
So where has Paul
Hogan been since Crocodile Dundee 2 in 1988. Almost An
Angel anyone? Thought not.
It's hard to
believe that in the 80's Hogan was leading an Australian revolution
along with The Sullivans, early Neighbours and INXS.
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| "Smile
love, we may never get to play this role again." "Thank
goodness." |
His adverts
for a well-known brand of Aussie lager became legendary. Then came
the ultimate creation. Mick Dundee, crocodile catcher and all round
top bloke.
When Mick went
to New York, what a cultural shock for the laid-back antipodean.
How we laughed (and we did). This was genuinely fresh humour.
But trends change.
What was funny then isn't now. Sadly, no one told Mr Hogan. Crocodile
Dundee in Los Angeles is a tired retread stuck in a time zone
20 years in the past.
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| "Smile
mate, you might never get to play this role again." "I
can hope." |
Calling the
film predictable and pedestrian is an under statement. Jokes which
worked in the original get a re-run here but to far less effect.
When Dundee
was victim of an attempted mugging in New York he uttered the immortal
line "this is a knife." Cinema audiences howled
with laughter. In LA the trick is tried with two hand guns. The
scene brings hardly a titter.
The first 30
minutes (with the action in the outback) shows a modicum of potential.
But when Dundee, his partner (again played by Linda Kozlowski, for
whom time has not been kind) and son Mikey move to LA, it's downhill
at a rapid pace.
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| I haven't
done this trick since Crocodile Dundee 2 |
The plot in
a nutshell involves Kozlowski taking over her father's newspaper
business and stumbling on an art smuggling scam. Hogan, again playing
the fish out of water, goes undercover to help his good lady.
This film was
on the way to earning just two stars from an early stage but one
scene in particular forces me to reduce my score still further.
There are two
cameo appearances in the movie. George Hamilton talks about coffee
enemas but worse than that is when Mick and son stumble across a
cross-legged, meditating man. It's none other than Mike Tyson.
Now Iron Mike
can box, he can bite ears but he cannot act. The scene bears no
relevance to the plot. It is pointless, much like this film.
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