Expected more

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This is actually a serious monster horror with quite a good story behind it. It is not at all original but the acting, the direction and the whole film really comes off well as a good monster horror. It will hold your attention and keep you entertained but you may find it a bit silly and not scary enough. There is some good tension near the beginning but by the end this is all gone. Worth a watch and entertaining. Average monster movie affair that passes the time without much effort.

John Sayles was a man responsible for writing some of the funniest, most affectionate monster movie follow-ups to JAWS. THE HOWLING is a mega-successful, universally-loved werewolf movie and PIRANHA one of the most purely entertaining B-movies of all time. ALLIGATOR is much the same as PIRANHA, a slightly silly, overblown B-movie with a large canvas, exquisite attention to detail and finely drawn characters.Usually with these monster movies you have to wait an age before the action begins but not so here. Things open in the thick of it as we're drawn into a murky conspiracy involving a pet shop owner selling dogs to an unscrupulous scientist at a research institute. The bad news is that he disposes of the genetically-engineered bodies in the local sewer system, where an alligator has been feeding on them for the past twelve years. Now the alligator is a huge, hulking monster ready to chow down on human flesh.Into this mess is thrown permanently bemused cop Robert Forster (VIGILANTE) in what is my favourite performance of his to date. He delivers a wry comic turn as the cop in way over his head, struggling to cope with stodgy superiors, an attractive female scientist sidekick and a receding hairline to boot. Robin Riker makes an impact as the love interest, far from the usual irritating sidekick we see in these films: she's feisty, strong-willed and more than a match for Forster.There are a couple of notable turns from veteran performers, including an ancient Dean Jagger (X THE UNKNOWN) as the murky figure behind the conspiracy and a scenery-chewing Henry Silva, clearly relishing his role as an over-the-top big game hunter who's determined to track down the beast. Watching Silva gather together a trio of 'gang bangers' to act as his native bearers was a highlight for me. The rest of the film is of the usual type: monster attacks, the authorities attempting to retaliate, then a pulse-pounding climax. Sayles shows a refreshingly realistic mean spirit here (a kid gets chewed after jumping in his swimming pool) and there are severed limbs galore.Director Lewis Teague should also be applauded for keeping his film lean and mean with a great pacing and some very well staged alligator attacks. These come in the form of full-size models plus a regular-sized alligator wrecking miniature scenery. I found the alligator scenes to be delivered with aplomb, especially the grisly attack on the wedding party at the climax which really delivers the outrageous goods. The sewer-based climax, with a sweaty Forster going up against the critter with a backpack full of dynamite, is very well handled too. You guessed it, I loved this movie, it's everything I could want from a B-movie monster flick. A sequel, ALLIGATOR II: THE MUTATION, followed ten years later...

This is a typical 80s B-movie, a story where Chicago is terrorized by a larger-than-life alligator, who as a baby was flushed down the toilet and grew to over 36 feet long over the years by feeding on discarded lab animals injected with growth hormones.Robert Forster plays cop David Madison, who is leading the charge to track down and destroy the reptile, and Robin Riker plays reptile expert Dr. Marisa Kendall, who teams up with Madison in the hunt. The two have decent acting and good on-screen chemistry, and they carried the movie over the more campy supporting cast members (Michael Gazzo's Chief Clark character sounded like he smokes 20 packs a day and Dean Jagger's Slade character doesn't know the meaning of speaking clearly).There are plenty of alligator action (the special and visual effects for it were quite good), chomping its way through those unfortunate enough to get caught in his path, and plenty of spills and screams as the creature makes its way out of the sewers and into lakes and swimming pools. But, the plot went all over the place from the middle of the movie towards the end. Alligator scenes shifted back and forth quickly to scenes with Forster and Kendall courting, which I thought takes away the tension and thrills of the film. The cop's investigation scenes are interrupted by the unnecessary subplot with the Brock character (Henry Silva), which deviated from the story's momentum. He didn't have much screen time to serve an elaborate role in the movie.Overall, it's basically a monster-on-the-loose movie, with plenty of action, but limited suspense.Grade C-

A baby pet alligator is flushed down a toilet in the opening scene. Into the sewer system it goes and grows to huge proportions. A local lab is illegally dumping experimental dog carcasses with growth hormones down there that the gator is feeding on. Homeless people and other city workers begin to disappear and police officer David (Forster) has to team up with Alligator specialist Marisa (Riker) to try and stop the huge gator. In the mean time the gator is swallowing kids in swimming pools, destroying a wedding the Mayor is having and chomping a big game hunter (Henry Silva) who was called in to stop it, in bloody fashion. Director Lewis Teague keeps the action crisp and this never gets boring. John Sayles script is filled with black humor and stretches way more fun out of this 'B' picture than it has a right to. Forster is properly cast as the grizzled cop and seems to enjoy his role. This isn't the type of movie to pull genuine scares out of it. Instead it's a fun, and at times bloody monster on the loose film.