Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001)

Mick Dundee (Paul Hogan) travels to the city of smog and stars with his young son (Serge Cockburn) in tow.No one should have had big expectations for this film, with its 1980s character now in the year 2001, with Paul Hogan noticeably aged and Linda Kozlowski looking like she had a few plastic surgery disasters. And Serge Cockburn is just annoying -- everything about this movie would be better if the kid was removed entirely (he really played no important part in the story).And yet, it is still pretty funny with a not-too-terrible mystery plot. What crime, if any, is being committed? And can Mick get to the bottom of it? These may not be the ruthless drug dealers of part two, but movie producers can be some vicious folks, as well!

Mick Dundee is back from the eighties, and this time, more hilarity ensues with typecast European villains played by people who played bad guys in the eighties in more notable films.The plot involves some sort of bad movie franchise (no pun intended) which is acting as a front to steal some rare paintings.Obviously Mick gets in the centre of it all, whilst getting involved in fish out of water scenarios, including gay bars, muggings, and talking about good old Mal Gibson.Strange considering he did this fifteen years prior. Well if it ain't broke, don't fix it.And this is the motto for Paul Hogan, and although it is a case of diminishing returns and same old same old, Hogans Dundee is such an endearing screen prescience, it's hard not to like.The story isn't up to much, and the apart from the main cast, the rest are just paper cut out Hollywood types, but it works, and heaven knows how, because it shouldn't.If you are a fan of the original movie, you will lap this up, otherwise, you will just balk at the idea, and not appreciate the cheesiness of it all.

I found the script to be just one cliché after the next. Many reviewers here say it is good 'Family fun'. If I had kids I might understand what that means but it seems to mean 'non-offensive pablum for the masses' and that's about all it is. Watching it reminded me of seeing the 1978 Gilligan's Island movie which was very depressing. Paul Hogan was about 47 when he did the first Crocodile movie but he was about 62 in this one so it's just not believable -- after 15 years he's still wearing the same black hat, has the same naivety about city-slickers. The jokes and script are very poorly written. It's like they hired writers that normally write for teen TV sitcoms like 'The Suite Life'. BLECH! Don't waste your time.

So, this isn't quite Mick as we remember him. He still takes matters into his own hands to help others when he can, and he did thankfully bring some of the Aussie charm and humor with him when he went to LA… but from pretty early on, you can just tell it's not the same. After a start with beautiful nature photography yet again, we soon leave for not NY(seriously, are they really all that different? This is the third movie to use that same schtick!). After this point, the music and editing occasionally slip into hyperdrive, and in general, this tries *way* too hard. The acting is over the top half of the time. Burns is stunningly unfunny. The kid, whom I pity on account of his horrible surname(if I was called that, I would not procreate, at least not until I had gotten it changed), is surprisingly... not annoying. We get the expected gimmicks with him, but he's not forced down our throats as something cute. This is actually amusing at times, albeit these are few and far between. The thing is black and white as they come, with ominous music letting us know who the villains are. For how reasonably big a budget this clearly had, they didn't go nuts and just toss a bunch of expensive stuff in our faces; it is worth noting that, for the dumb jokes and such, this is not anywhere near as irritating and intolerable as the recent family comedies often are. There are a couple of shameless plugs. It would help if this was willing to parody the glamour instead of merely revelling in it. The same two leads are back, the make-up team unable to hide the fact that it's been over a decade since last time. There is almost no strong language or otherwise offensive material(apart from the most obvious end song ever) in this; it doesn't take chances like the first 2 did. I recommend this purely to big fans of the franchise. 5/10