Good movie but grossly overrated

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A television producer, a camera chick & two surfers head to a distant island in the Philippines in order to make a documentary about "blood surfing", an extreme sport where the surfers throw blood into the water then surf in the midst of sharks. But after a good day's surfing, the group discover that something has destroyed their boat. They are then pursued by a monster saltwater crocodile that kills for fun & that is after them in a big way. Along with a group of pirates who patrol the island & a sea captain who is itching for a way to get revenge on the croc for ruining his life, the crew must find a way to escape the island & the croc's teeth.I really love killer crocodile films – my love for this under-appreciated subgenre stems from watching my late father's VHS copy of the Italian flick Killer Crocodile during my youth. That film was awesome to my nine-year-old eyes & even today it still gets me going. Ever since then, I've seen a number of similar films.Blood Surf is one of the millennium's first ever monster crocodile films – made in 2000 to be exact – and I first saw it on late night television. At the time, I thought it was pretty silly given the lack of a good script & some pretty mediocre visual effects (the crocodile looked pretty fake). Years later, I obtained a VHS copy of Blood Surf & decided to review it. Was my initial assessment of the film accurate? Well, yes & no.Blood Surf is a horror film for surfers. The heroes of the piece are a pair of dumb white-bread surfer dudes (& the top-ranking female is an Aussie camera chick), one of whom has an unhealthy love for his surfboard; the premise involves an extreme form of surfing – not content with killer waves, they hit upon the idea of surfing in shark-infested waters – and the film is filled with all manner of surfing dialogue & terminology. The film even goes so far as to acknowledge its inspiration – "What's the name of that killer shark movie?" one surfer asks; "Jaws". "There's no mechanical fish on this island." The film, in an attempt to reach out to the jaded teenage market, has a sex scene where one of the surfers has sex with who is later revealed to be an underage local girl (the scenes being intercut with the death of the girl's parents makes this a real mess of a scene). I wonder if anyone out there might be interested in actually making a real attempt at actually "blood surfing" (it would be a pretty wild ride, despite being an insane idea). This film's first act is quite good.But once the crocodile begins attacking, Blood Surf quickly falls into the tired Jaws templater that it was billed as. The visual effects are pretty poor – once the croc appears, you will know why they kept it hidden. The creature is simply a large animatronic croc that looks pretty badly designed (the crocodiles in the Killer Crocodile films looked much more convincing & those two films had a much lower budget than this one) & which is 'supplanted' by miniatures, bad CGI & stock footage. The inclusion of pirates into the film is a poor attempt at causing complications in the story & some of the croc attacks are so fake-looking that they will incite laughter in the audience.On the acting front, the cast do a reasonable effort at filling their roles but you'll still realise that their roles are nothing more than cardboard clichés. Most notable is the film's version of Quint – Duncan Regehr's character of John Dirks – who even dies the same way (getting bitten in half). Katie Fischer seems to be overdoing her native Aussie accent in an attempt to pander to the Americans in order to bring back memories of the Crocodile Dundee films. Director James D. R. Hickox, who is the brother of genre director Anthony Hickox (who made the likes of HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH & the Steven Seagal actioner SUBMERGED) gets a fair amount of mileage out of the surroundings & the underwater shots but doesn't seem to be as good a director as his brother (who himself is only a passable director at best), making piecemeal out of what should have been a reasonable monster flick. Still, it's not a total loss & the story will make many Jaws fans laugh their heads off.

I chose to watch this movie on demand very late at night one day. The idea caught my attention, some adrenaline junkies looking for a thrill decide to chum the water in order to attract sharks to boost the extremes of surfing. But when a 30-foot Crocodile is thrown into the mix. Now I thought since this was in the year 2000 that there would at least be a cheesy animatronic, which really adds to the B horror movie appeal. However to my surprise, the Crocodile appeared in a clash of horrible CG. Now giving this film a 30% does seem somewhat generous but it was entirely for the originality of the plot. Another problem I had with this film was the incredible amount of problems and stock footage. The scenes would cut to swamp, to ocean to lake. It was horrible to watch them try to cover these flaws up. The scenery did not even seem to hide the fact that the backgrounds were incredibly different. Another little problem I had with this flick was the vast amount of topless woman. It was as if they popped their tops purely to please the viewers. This movie even uses the oldest of horror movie tricks, kill the females and give us a douche of a main character that just wont die until the end of the movie is close. And even towards the end the topless women still appeared. In one scene the two women who have made it all the way without dying flash their breasts and scream out "Fuck you Alligator". I had a major problem with that, first of all it's a Crocodile not an Alligator. The cast could not even get the right species correct. And secondly, why are they taking their tops off for an Crocodile. It makes little to no sense. Overall, this movie is bad, it's filled with holes all throughout the flick. It's not even worth viewing, there really is nothing that makes this movie worth watching unless your a horny adolescent who gets off by watching flat chested women take off their tops.

Blood Surf AKA Krocodylus is a fair film that has an okay cast which includes Dax Miller, Taryn Reif, Kate Fischer, Duncan Regehr, Joel West, Matt Borlenghi, Maureen Larrazabal, Cris Vertido, Susan Africa, Archie Adamos, Rolando Santo Domingo, and Malecio Amayao. The acting by the actors is fairly good. The thrills are fairly good and some of it is surprising. The movie is filmed fairly good as well. Same thing goes for the music The film is fairly interesting and the movie does keeps you going until the end. This is a fairly thrilling film. If you the the cast in the film, Monsters, Giant Animal films, Horror, Thrillers, Mystery, and interesting films then I recommend you to see this film today!

¡§Blood Surf¡¨ may not be as popular as the other giant crocodile movie ¡§Lake Placid,¡¨ but it is still a great movie.**SPOILERS**A group from a TV company, surfers Bog (Dax Miller) and Jeremy (Joel West), cinematographer Cecily (Katie Fischer), and producer Zack (Matt Borlenghi) arrive in Australia to do a show on blood surfing, attracting sharks to a certain area, then surfing in to shore with the sharks in a frenzy. Asking to use a boat piloted by native Sonny LeFrance (Chris Vertido) and his wife Melba (Susan Africa), who refuse, they contact another local, John Dirks (Duncan Regehr) and his helper, Arti (Taryn Reif). He agrees, and they sail out on the first day, but witness a strange phenomenon in the water: several sharks seemingly exploding on contact with this one source in the water. Later that day, Sonny and his daughter Lemmya (Maureen Larrazabal) are attacked and killed by an unseen assailant. Investigating the disappearances, they find the LaFrance¡¦s boat submerged. Retrieving their camera, they also are attacked by a strange creature, only they survive and meet a group of pirates who are protecting their island and misinterpret the group on the island. Getting a free ride away from the island, the creature attacks the boat, allowing the TV crew to escape and run into John, who reveals that he has hunting the creature after them, a monster crocodile. They try to kill it, but the crocodile survives and forces the boat to sink. Only Bog, Arti, and Cecily escape and make to land, making refuge in a small watery inlet. There, the crocodile meets his end and Cecily and Bog return to the mainland.The Good News: Despite the small budget, the film is highly enjoyable. There is a certain charm to it that other movies of its type lack, and is a rather re-watchable movie. There is a lot of action in the movie, and it envelops the viewer in the movie. The whole last half-hour is exceptionally action packed, as they try to capture the crocodile, then they have to run for their lives, then manage to kill the crocodile. It happens in a realistic manner, and is perhaps the best part of the movie. For once, the crocodile is realistic looking. The animatronics by John Carl Buechler¡¦s group has done an outstanding job at creating the monster, and he steals the show from the human actors, when he finally comes on screen, as he spends half the movie being only a shadow. That brings up the fact that the movie is pretty suspenseful, as the crew is being stalked by a shadowy figure in certain scenes, and you hate to admit it after, but it made you jump. In a small vein, it is a guilty pleasure, a film you hate to admit watching to others, but yet you still do. There is a lot of gore in this movie, as the crocodile attacks are pretty gruesome and detailed. ¡§Blood Surf¡¨ has a lot of blood and bone-crunching scenes. I also have to recommend the director to get Katie Fischer to run around the last half-hour of the movie in perhaps the tightest tank top I¡¦ve seen in many years. That was perhaps the highlight of the movie.The Bad News: The film is pretty cheesy. The film does manage you to drop enough belief that it becomes a hard task at some points in the movie to do so. The movie has so many scenes that as being utterly ridiculous you have to laugh at it. The scene where Zack surfs into the crocodile, the attack on the LaFrance¡¦s boat, and the whole love plots in the middle are so stupid they should have been completely dropped from the film. The acting is also a tough pill to swallow, as the three main leads, Arti, Cecily, and Bog are certainly not Oscar caliber yet, but seem to be having a fun time. The pirates subplot was so hockey that I¡¦m glad the crocodile killed them off quickly, but if they were going to show it, to make it a little scarier, the croc should¡¦ve stalked them in the water. Small hit-and-miss, and fortunately, one of few.The Final Verdict: While not among one of the great monster flicks, ¡§Blood Surf¡¨ is entertaining enough to satisfy several different styles of horror film fans for 90 minutes. Do not think this movie will bore you, and it might actually entertain you if you¡¦re not careful.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, and a short sex scene.