Why so much hype?

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Alligator is one of those films that people will either love or hate. I doubt it was supposed to be very 'A-grade' when it was released back in 1980. Now, well over thirty years old, I was hesitant to see how well it's stood up to the test of time.I was pleased to say the answer is: pretty well.If you can excuse the seventies haircuts (in an eighties movie!) then you'll find quite a tight little monster-munching movie. Lake Placid may have better effects, but Alligator still has its own special charm - think 'Jaws,' but with an alligator instead of a shark (oh, and in Chicago, rather than the sea, obviously).Basically, what little plot there is revolves around a little girl having her per alligator flushed down the toilet when it was still young. Once in the sewers, over a period of twelve years, it mutates, getting much, much bigger and basically comes back for revenge. Yes, revenge. It seems to have a natural instinct as to whose fault it was, but, hey, just suspend your disbelief and enjoy it.Alligator is played out on that fine line between 'tongue in cheek' and 'straight.' It has a foot in both camps and somehow it manages to pull both off.If you're a fan of general animatronics monsters eating man, woman and child (yes, child - you wait and see!) then give Alligator a go. It's just a shame that with a solid movie like this, the alligator himself didn't move on to better things. He was certainly the star and I was hoping to find him in a nice indie flick or even a romantic comedy. Well... maybe.

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.

Rats, Bells, now Alligator. A pretentious fun movie ride, with a not so bad story to back it up, I was impressed, as not seeing the movie for nearly thirty years. We have some moments early into the film, that are almost unbearably suspenseful, (the sewer walk) and a couple of other tense, hold your breath moments, later. Up close, this alligator is a terrifying view, and when you got cool cop Forster, (way before he was recognized for the bloody good actor he is) and sexy doc, Robin Riker, it only makes it all the better. Cruel daddy flushes little son's pet alligator down the dunny. It ends up in the sewers, where he feeds off lab rats and puppies that have been injected with growth hormones. The one reason I hated Sydney Lassick, as the bad guy, pet shop owner, who runs his own private operation, oblivious to the fact Forster's a cop, who buys a puppy off of him. The story eases along nicely, amidst a bit of romance, where we really get to know and care about the leads too, where we also meet some other heartless, fu...rs. too. Things really go into overdrive at the end, with the gator, literally crashing a big outdoor function, it's great cheesy fun, as the ending with Forster, scarcely escaping, when ending the fu..er. If you hate creature features, or have a lot of nightmares, this is definitely not your bag.

In the second half of the 1970s, and beginning of the 1980s, whenever a movie that blatantly ripped off Jaws never fully upset me for two reasons: I loved When Animals Attack movies of that era and they only made me appreciate the masterpiece Jaws was all the more.To be fair, 1980's Alligator isn't a complete duplicate of 1975's Jaws. Alligator had its own ideas, settings and some clever ideas, but for the most part, it was the A-B-C of the When Animals Attack genre that Jaws pretty much shot to popularity.I'm no expert, but kids, or well, anyone, having a baby gator as a pet? Really? But, anyways, a child brings home said baby alligator and, rightfully – or not, per this movie's plot – the dad flushes the little man-eater down the toilet. Twelve years later, baby's grown up, way up…or, more accurately out?The movie goes through the typical in-the-shadows death here, questions there, cop from the beginning who asks all the right questions slowly becomes the sole hero, more shadowy deaths, finally people believe said hero and the beast emerges into the light for more terror.While not that bad, and sometimes scary, it's an effective way to get your 80s When Animals Attack fix. But, I must say this: I'm a fan of Robert Forster – Jackie Brown's one of my favorite movies and he was born in my hometown (irrelevant, but still) – but, damn, please put back on your shirt you take off too many times here. You might have inadvertently given Harrison Ford, in his later years and roles, the wrong idea about when it's okay to bare a bland chest…It's never okay when the camera's rolling.* * * Final thoughts: I honestly remember this movie, but I'm equally honest that I don't remember if I had seen it all the way through before. I absolutely remember the eerie opening when the dad flushes the baby gator – and in perfect 1980s, that one act terrifies me because the phrase "Oh, this can't be good" fits the mood. And I slightly remember the effective limo scene attack towards the ending. I had never, nor since, been afraid of alligators, but this movie certainly made an argument for me to be.