Alligator II: The Mutation (1991)

Directed by Jon Hess. Starring Joseph Bologna, Dee Wallace, Holly Gagnier, Woody Brown, Richard Lynch, Brock Peters, Steve Railsback, Bill Daily, Trevor Eyster. [PG-13]

Another alligator on the loose, another hunt to stop the thing from chewing up half the South Side of Chicago…or wherever the action’s supposed to be taking place since the movie is intentionally vague. Better than Piranha II: The Spawning, to be sure, but still just a bargain-basement knock-off without a fraction of the clever humor or cheap-thrill fun of the first. The gator action is so cheap and feeble, the human drama ends up being more interesting! (By “more interesting”, I mean, “still not interesting at all”.) Even Railsback’s hammy-but-underwritten villainy fails to breathe any life into this dreary, lumbering bore. Barely released theatrically for good reason.

18/100