I watch the “Crocodile Hunter” television show, and to those of you people who don’t know, Steve Irwin is a professional wildlife explorer who studies vicious wildlife. Don’t be fooled by his name though, he’s more of a Crocodile preserver than hunter. I was rather curious to discover how Hollywood which has the ability to squeeze the life out of a phenomenon would handle this, and I was rather surprised. The good thing about this movie is that they don’t try to make actors out of the two explorers on which the movie focuses on.
Rather, Steve and his wife don’t try to be characters, yet they’re themselves, talking to the camera and showing off their skills as they wrangle with vicious creatures. It’s like the show was transferred onto film and it was pleasing. The problem with this is that the movie sets up a sub-plot as the agents go through countless trouble attempting to track Steve down. I found this to be a bad plot-device to move the story along and felt it unnecessary. We get two-dimensional villains who constantly fall and tumble throughout the movie which is odd being that they’re government agents who can’t even catch an animal.
I would have preferred if the movie was exactly like the show except a documentary-style movie for kids which would have suited me well, but the sub-plot in here is very sub-par. Irwin, himself, is a nut as he nearly gets chomped on by a large crocodile, and stung by a bird spider, and by-golly that’s what makes him so likeable in this movie. I love to see him take lots of risks by exploring these animals up-close. What really pleased me throughout the movie is that Irwin and his wife constantly give the audience messages about preserving wildlife for the greater good, I thought it was a good way to turn this movie into a lesson and I encourage it. All in all, a decent movie to watch, Kids will love Irwin’s risky likeable nature as he wrangles with vicious animals, while they appreciate the family friendly action and suspense. (Aren’t you glad I didn’t say “Crikey!” once in this review? You’re welcome)