[miketardis]

DINOCROC (2004)
Directed by Kevin O’Neill. Stars Costas Mandylor, Charles Napier, Matt Borlenghi, Jane Longenecker, Jake Thomas, Bruce Weitz, Joanna Pacula. Executive producer Roger Corman more or less reworks his hit CARNOSAUR movies with a large half-dinosaur/half-crocodile. Of course, it’s genetically engineered in a sinister think tank and escapes into the swamp, where it eats sensitive artist Borlenghi’s kid brother. Props to special effects expert O’Neill, directing his only film to date, for unexpectedly killing a child in such a gory manner. That’s about the only thing original about DINOCROC, which illogically teams the artist with a dogcatcher (Longenecker), her sheriff father (Napier) and an Australian crocodile hunter (Mandylor). Two or three endings later, the movie finally closes with many characters dead, but the title creature still kicking for a possible DINOCROC 2. It’s not awful as these Sci-Fi Channel creature features go, but it wouldn’t kill anybody to put some effort into making a better one. Co-writer Frances Doel, who penned Corman’s BIG BAD MAMA and DEATHSPORT at New World, should know better.