The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (2002)

Review by All Movie Guide
The contagious gusto of nutty bloke Steve Irwin has given pause to many a restless channel surfer, who stop on his Animal Planet show to witness the one time he recoils from a springing crocodile a smidgeon too late. It turns out his mixture of clowning and teaching is enough to carry a children's movie, and that this movie maintains that fascination factor necessary to keep older viewers from squirming -- not unlike Irwin's poisonous snakes, which he handles as though emboldened by a pact with the devil. The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course works because writer-producer-director John Stainton doesn't try to make actors of Irwin and his wife Terri, letting them play themselves rather than Indiana Jones or Crocodile Dundee-style adventurers, as well as talk to deadly wildlife instead of human actors. Stainton splits the narrative between the familiar pursuits of the Irwins and the kooky CIA retrieval mission, even changing the aspect ratio from the rectangular cinema format to the square TV format to distinguish them. When the plots do finally collide near the end, it's clever and humorous: As he grapples with one of the suits atop a moving SUV, Irwin continues to address the camera as though he were simply encountering a nastier species of predator. These fun moments come at the cost of a B-movie production design and an anonymous cast of bland performers, but there's one notable exception: the rotund, cartoonish Magda Szubanski, offering an irascible variation on her Mrs. Hoggett character from Babe. Crocodile Hunter does have its moments -- but it would be just as well to wait and accidentally discover it while channel surfing. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide