Crocodile Dundee (1986)

Paul Hogan bring the character of Mick 'Crocodile' Dundee to life. Sue Charlton (Linda Kozlowski) is a beautiful reporter from New York on a quest into the Austrailian Outback in search of a story, but she gets way more than she thought when she meets 'Crocodile' Dundee in the flesh.

The scenes in the outback are my favourite, a great blend of action and comedy, with some simply beautiful cinematic views thrown in; but the film does get funnier once they head back to New York. His naivety in the big city opens the door for lots more comedy moments.

Overall it's a really good comedy 7/10

Fmovies: New York reporter Sue Charlton hears of a guy in the outback of Australia who survived an attack by a crocodile. For research she meets up with "Crocodile Mick Dundee" and spends time with him out in dangerous Bush Country. Finding a rapport during their time together, Sue convinces Mick to go back with her to New York, which brings interesting results as Mick becomes a big hit by treating the Big Apple, and all that comes his way, the same as he would the Outback.

Crocodile Dundee has a standard fish out of water comedy premise, yet with a number of truly funny sequences and an appealing turn from Paul Hogan as Dundee, it became a monster smash hit that the cinema watching public lapped up with glee. In a decade that is often considered or debated to be the worst for film, it may just be that cinema goers were desperate for a pick me up movie? Possibly, but undoubtedly Crocodile Dundee most assuredly is that type of escapist piece. However, to give that credence would, I feel, be doing it a disservice, for in spite of the rickety concept and the obviousness of where we will ultimately end up, it has bundles of earthy charm, a charm that many can identify with.

As Dundee goes about his way, meeting pimps, transsexuals and muggers et al, they are not only very funny scenes, they are also points of reference to the ever changing way of the Continents. Not that the film doesn't come dangerously close to falling into a sugary rom-com mire, but with a strong performance from Linda Kozlowski as Sue, and Hogan introducing an icon to 80s cinema, Crocodile Dundee safely hits the target that it was surely aiming for. Besides, the love story here is very easy to get on side with, to support it and hanker for this opposites attract coupling to work out.

Two sequels would follow, the first one was a retread reversal and just about passable, the second one, after a gap of 13 years, was bad and evidence that the joke had long since passed. Crocodile Dundee 86 holds up well as the escapist piece of cinema that it is. A nice film to revisit every other year, for it be simple, warm, and yes, I'll say it again, damn funny. 8/10

I had an idea from the television adds that ran, in 1986, for this but i didn't realize that it would be the "Feel Good Movie" of the summer!! This was fresh and funnier than quite a few things I'd seen in a long time. To beat all, this was a film that not only had a very clean and unoffensive story, but it was formed out of an experience that Paul Hogan had when he was visiting New York City.

This won Golden globe awards for both Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski. it was also awarded a Golden Screen Award. On top of that was nominated for an 'Oscar'. It did also win, for best music scoring, Peter Best. Peter Best, don't tell me this was the Beatle's first drummer? That Best??? I saw this when I was 18 and I remember being amazed at the complexity and yet simplistic view played out by Paul's character. Wow! I thought, this was really like a "Raiders of the Lost Ark ", in a different way. Similar in newness a great story event. Something that made you think and feel, just a little more than others stories. When films were just getting exciting. To me, this was shot intensely well, with talented direction and careful attention to the details, especially the character development. It was new and very exciting to see and feel what all was brought to the screen, in Dolby sound. I realize that some people won't follow what I am saying completely, but as I have learned over the years, not all cinema is equal. I especially love it when He said, "Jesus Christ and all of them apostles were fishermen, if him and me were working here together, we'd be mates."

This has the ability (I believe) to touch the heart, in an awesome underdog kind of way. My heart was in my throat at the subway scene and I was rooting for Dundee!

I recommend this to buy and watch again when you feel like seeing it, and noticing how you can get something different out of it each time you see this.

Smart original comedy, with the beautiful 'Outback" as scenery and even a great chick flick, on a dinner and movie date night. (****)

Crocodile Dundee fmovies. Crocodile Dundee - 4/5 stars

A Film Review by John Ulmer

"Crocodile Dundee" is one of those Fish Out of the Water tales; the innocent outsider thrown into the frustrations of modern life. Or is it the Croc out of the Water? Whatever it is, it's one of the best of its genre.

"Crocodile Dundee" is about a newspaper journalist (Linda Kozlowski) who travels out to the Outback, where she meets with Mick Dundee, better known as "Crocodile" Dundee. After wandering around in the Outback for a few days with Mick, writing her little story about surviving in the Outback, she decides that it would be interesting for her (or her newspaper?) to bring Mick back to New York City, where she lives. Mick reluctantly agrees, and travels to New York City clad in his croc-skin vest and Australian hat. Now Mick will have to adjust to modern life if he wishes to survive in New York.

"Crocodile Dundee" is, in a way, very typical of its kind. For example: Mick walks off the plane to NYC and steps onto an escalator, dressed in his Australian attire. Now, no matter how innocent and inexperienced a guy is, you can't tell me he's not going to realize he looks a bit odd in his clothes. The first thing I'd do is try to change to fit in better. But, you see, this is half the fun of this films, and all Fish Out of the Water films for that matter. If the main character did adapt straight away to his new surroundings, not only would it make for an awfully boring tale, but it would not be a proper Fish Out of the Water film.

Not only is Paul Hogan completely convincing in his role as Mick Dundee, he is utterly likable from the start. He's a nice, innocent Outback man who learns what the fast life is like, yet sticks to his old ways. As we can see from the less-successful sequels, Mick never really adapts to his surroundings. He learns how to survive, but he never buys fancy clothes or such: he sticks with his croc-vest and hat.

While "Crocodile Dundee" isn't exactly a great comedy, it's one of those that can be remembered for being very funny, and it is easy to watch. It has a certain charm to it, like many of those eighties' comedies. It makes it hard to hate them. Just yesterday I wrote a review for "Opportunity Knocks" with Dana Carvey. That movie wasn't great, but it's hard to dislike it. While "Crocodile Dundee" is about ten times greater than "Opportunity Knocks," it still isn't an excellent comedy. But because of its likable charm and great sense of humor, it's definitely one to see and watch many, many times.

There have been a lot of these kinds of films: "Blast From the Past," "Bubble Boy," to name a few recent of the genre. But "Crocodile Dundee" ranks as one of the best of its kind.

4/5 stars -

John Ulmer

When you mix good comedy with action and a very likable leading character you get a hit movie. I never met anyone who didn't like this film, although there are always detractors to any movie and no movie is perfect, either.

However, this was an extremely entertaining that made an international star out of Australian Paul Hogan. Two sequels followed this movie. They were decent but could not measure up to this effort.

Not only was this a big success for Hogan and everyone else connected with it, but I believe he got a wife out of this wife, going on to marry his co-star Linda Kozlowski.

As someone pointed out, Hogan, as crocodile man "Mick Dundee" made the rest of the world aware of a number of Aussie phrases. Few men played as manly as likeabe and charismatic a hero in the 1980s as Hogan and "Mick."

Twenty years later, this is still a fun movie to watch now and then.

The Australian film industry first began to come to international notice in the seventies and early eighties with films like Peter Weir's "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and "Gallipoli", Fred Schepisi's "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith" and Bruce Beresford's "Breaker Morant". Most of these were films with a serious theme and, often, a historical setting. "Crocodile Dundee" was different. Not only did it have a contemporary setting, it was also perhaps the first great Australian comedy- certainly the first Australian comedy to achieve international success.

The protagonists are Mick Dundee, a bushman from northern Australia, and Sue Charleton, an attractive young female journalist from New York. Sue is on assignment in Australia, and hears stories about a legendary crocodile hunter from the small outback village of Walkabout Creek. (The name may be homage to Nicolas Roeg's film "Walkabout", one of the earliest manifestations of the Australian New Wave. One of the stars of that film, David Gumpilil, has a part in Crocodile Dundee). Sue meets Mick to interview him and travels with him into the bush to see the scene of his famed encounter with a crocodile that nearly cost him his leg. She then arranges for him to travel back to New York with her- the first time he has been outside Australia or visited a city.

The film is essentially a romantic comedy. Romantic comedies generally deal with a couple in love and the way in which they overcome obstacles to their love. A common type of obstacle is a discrepancy in their social backgrounds, and this is the type we have here. Sue and Mick seem to be polar opposites. She is a typical product of the American East Coast elite- urban, wealthy, professional, politically committed to liberal causes. He is from a working-class background, rural, apolitical with no fixed employment. As another reviewer has pointed out, he is as much a fish out of water in the city as she is in the outback. To make things worse, he is considerably older than her, and she already has a boyfriend, her editor Richard. There is, however, a saying that polar opposites attract, and this is as true of characters in romantic comedies as it is of magnets. The marvellous ending on the crowded subway station is one of the most memorable finales to any romantic comedy, rivalling that of "The Graduate".

Some romantic comedies concentrate on romance at the expense of comedy, but Crocodile Dundee is not one of them. The film is brilliantly funny, especially in the second half when the action moves to New York. The main source of the humour is Paul Hogan's title character. Mick is a rough diamond, but decent, kindly and good-hearted. Most of the laughs arise from his innocent misunderstanding of the seedier aspects of life in the big city- there are jokes at the expense of prostitutes, criminals like the muggers who flee when they see Mick has a bigger knife than they have ("That's not a knife. THAT'S a knife!"), transvestites (one of whom Mick mistakenly tries to chat up), drug takers (Mick thinks cocaine is a cure for blocked sinuses) and psychiatrists ("Haven't you got any mates to talk to?") This last sentiment touched a chord in Britain, ever suspicious of the American obsession with psycho-analysis. Mick may be apolitical, but he is also politically incorrect- much of the humour is aimed at the culture of political correctness, just starting to burgeon in the mid-eighties. There are jokes ab