Greek, Portuguese, English - Hearing Impaired, Turkish, Croatian
Extras
7 Featurette
Photo gallery
Animated menus
Trivia track
The Crocodile Hunter - Collision Course
MGM/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment .
R4 . COLOR . 86 mins .
PG . PAL
Feature
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Crikey!
Good-o, now that the formalities are out of the way...
Burp!
Whether you see Steve Irwin as a dedicated and admirable conservationist, an expert marketeer or simply as a raving nutcase who perpetuates stereotypical views of Australians to those ever-so-gullible Yanks, you can’t deny that the bloke simply oozes enthusiasm somethin’ shockin’. The Crocodile Hunter – Collision Course delivers a movie-length dose of it all, right from the opening strains of the MGM crocodile (poor Leo must have done gone and got eaten) to the roll of the credits at the other end – just don’t go looking for anything resembling much of a plot and any fan of the man and his top sort Yankee sheila Terri will be in clover, mate.
That thread which serves to string things along loosely for almost an hour and a half, or that which could be described as at least vaguely plot-like, simply consists of an American satellite blowing up and its data recorder eventually getting swallowed by a mighty huge crocodile (or “apex predator” as we’re often informed) – leaving the US government with a bit of a problem in Australia. From hereon a battle ensues between a stereotyped tough chick cattle farmer named Brozzie (Magda Szubanski mugging it up brilliantly as only she can) who believes the very same cow-eating croc would look much better as a collection of boots, bags and belts, a Fauna & Fisheries officer named Sam (David Wenham, who steals the show with an enthusiastic “Aww, sugar!” when being attacked by a pack of pissed off dogs) trying to stop her and, of course, Steve’n’Terri on their own mission (between brakes for snakes, of course) to liberate the prehistoric throwback from what they think are poachers. Actually, they’re a couple of out of their depth CIA agents who certainly haven’t counted on receiving one hell of a Steve-o education...
Generously sprinkled throughout are scenes of Irwin doing mad bugger things such as playing rugby with goannas, analysing their meals by sifting through their poo, playing with “beautiful snakes” (which for many of us is oxymoronic in itself - and then he calls one “sweetheart”!!!), hassling mega-giant spiders (“beautiful sheilas”) and, of course, wrestling with bloody huge crocojackas.
"This bloke’s off the Richter scale!"
Irwin’s obvious enthusiasm is certainly infectious, and The Crocodile Hunter – Collision Course certainly offers those who are curious a chance to get close up and often very personal with the sort of beasties more sensible folk steer well and truly clear of in life wherever possible. Call me a wuss if you will, but I have no desire to ever confront a bloody huge mongrel of a snake which could inject almost a drink can’s worth of necrotic venom in one hit, leaving me to watch my various bodily bits gradually rotting away. Sorry mate, this babe’s just not that much fun...
Video
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MMMmmm... poo!
Collision Course uses an intriguing mix of 2:35:1 (anamorphically enhanced) and 1.78:1 vision contained within the 2.35:1 frame (so there are – dramatic sting (OW!) – black bars completely surrounding the image!) The movie bits make use of the more expansive width, whilst all the Irwin bits have the more televisual aspect, in keeping with the way the film has been done in bringing all these sections to us as if they are actually a part of the TV show.
Generally the vision is pretty good, although some of the 1.78:1 stuff can be a little spotty at times – mind you there’s every likelihood that the cause of this is down to flies rather than any problems with the film itself. The bushy colours all come up quite well, and the various night scenes exhibit decent enough black levels do as not to just have us gawking at a screen full of dingy murk. The subtitles are intriguing, for they correct such Irwin mispronunciations as “toxidity” with their actual English equivalents – which does take a bit of the fun out of things.
Audio
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An occasionally beefy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is the go here, be it English or Czech. Synched well, despite some slightly obvious ADR work at time, the subwoofwoof gets to have a crack at the odd throaty boom, while surrounds are for the most part quite subdued, simply adding to the atmosphere of things before whipping up the odd go at a bit of noisiness. For the most part, however, things come from fair smack dab in the middle, suiting proceedings perfectly without ever causing great excitement – despite obvious attempts by the soundtrack, courtesy of Mark McDuff. If you like things over the top – and let’s face it, it’s one of Irwin’s biggest charms – then you’ll find the score more than suited to the action on screen. I won’t comment on the utterly shockin’ (oh well, too late – it looks like I did) attack on Crocodile Rock by novelty band the Baha Men that’s also included...
Extras
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The Crocodile Hunter - Menu Course.
Strewth, it seems the words “special” and “edition” don’t hold as much sway as they used to mate, for as much as this disc has these two words plastered over the cover like a band-aid on a snake bite, there’s actually very little of substance in the way of extras.
A series of full-frame seven featurettes is included, all of which are quite brief, and there’s no ‘play all’ option. Offering peaks behind the scenes of some of the production, either Steve or Terri guide us through everything from rehearsals to crocs taking speccies in the fairly self-explanatorily named pieces. They are... Setting the Scene (5:27), Lights, Camera, Croc Attack! (3:16), Dicing With Danger (1:57), Up the Creek With a Croc (2:40), King Brown Snake Shoot (4:24), Snakesational Action (7:25) and The Deadliest Snake in the World (4:58).
Next up is possibly the most fun extra bit, the croc track, whereby trivia on pretty much anything that graces the screen during the film pops up in the form of text on a crocodile or hunk of wood, along with the odd question to see if you’ve been paying attention.
Finally there’s a photo gallery. Divided into five sections, there are still only a total of 48 piccies in all – ranging from behind the scenes, film stills, some of Steve’s funny faces, a few happy snaps (heehee) of crocs and some family photos, including the Irwins’ gorgeous little tacker.
And that’s it – you’ll hardly be flat out like a lizard drinking wading through this little lot.
Overall
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If you enter into it expecting a sort of extended version of the telly show with a rudimentary attempt at a plot sticky-taped on pretty much for the hell of it, then as one heck of an adventure The Crocodile Hunter – Collision Course shouldn’t disappoint. While the video and audio are decent enough, the light-on extras go nowhere near living up to their supposed “special edition” tag, but in the end if like most people you sweat bullets at the sight of the sort of big and little beasties which Steve worships with such devoted passion, then this is a great DVD to whip out when you’re after one hell of a rollicking horror flick that’s better than anything those amateurs like Hitchcock or Stephen King could ever cook up...
Amazon Women on the Moon "...worth a look if you’ve never before had the pleasure. Bullshit, or not?"
Jack & Sarah "Proving that simplicity is no obstruction to brilliance, this is an ultimately sweet (but not sickeningly so) tale that gives all those bigger English films out there a more than respectable run for their money... "