Crikey! One thing's for sure, this is no Crocodile Dundee remake.
Nigel Bell Animal Planet star Steve Irwin makes his big screen debut in a movie which says stuff the story, here's the environment message. The Plot
A satellite blows up resulting in a sophisticated camera crashing to earth and being eaten by a crocodile. Two CIA agents are sent to Australia to retrieve it. An Aussie operative, acting for a rival organisation, is also on the hunt. In the meantime, naturalist Steve Irwin is making a documentary when he's called upon to move a crocodile (the same one which swallowed the camera) to a new location because it's bothering a grumpy farmer. It's a race to see who gets there first. The verdict
The big problem with Crocodile Hunter is that the story element is almost superfluous.  | | Mrs Irwin and Joey |
This is basically Animal Planet on the big screen with some dreadful bit-part actors thrown in to little affect. Irwin has a great presence and fans of "crikey" will have a field day. He mentions the word every couple of minutes (even wife Terri exclaims "crikey" when being buzzed by a mircolight). Irwin's to be applauded for getting his message of caring for the world we live in across to a cinema-going public. Irwin doesn't act in this film, he's just as he is on the telly - plenty of enthusiasm, lots of pieces to camera, keen to hold deadly snakes and spiders and, of course, lots of fights with crocodiles. The grappling sequences are certainly better than the days when Johnny Weismuller fought rubber crocs in Tarzan. You do have to question whether Irwin is gutsy or just plain stupid. The support is so lame you wonder whether this has a right to be called a feature film, although kids will enjoy fights on top of a jeep and almost slapstick moments when our Steve keeps falling into croc infested water. From an environment point of view, Crocodile Hunter probably does more than a dozen nature lessons at school would. But then again, you could get just as much watching Steve Irwin on the telly. Just why the film is a PG is a mystery - presumably incase children are encouraged to go chasing poisonous spiders and gnashing crocodiles. Certainly it's not because of the language. The strongest you get is "rack off." 
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