Saturday, June 26, 2021

Monster Crap Inductee: Mega Shark vs.Crocosaurus (2010)

Monster Crap Inductee: Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus
Death Has A New Ass

2010

For Gus Richlen’s second film this summer, he decided to bring me the return of an Asylum series….

No…..Thankfully Not That One. There Isn’t No Third Film Of That.
 
But instead, we get the return of the Mega Shark and no one from the first film is gonna come back except for that Mega Shark. Now you all know the killer animal, but we need to talk about the cast and the director. First, let’s talk about the director Christopher Ray and if you remember my last induction, he is the son of Fred Olen Ray, who we have covered on this site four times with Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold, Teenage Cavegirl, Bikini Jones and the Temple Of Eros, and Ghost in a Teeny Bikini.
 
Oh, We’ll Get More Of Your Films On This Site As He Has A Treasure Trove Of Crap I Have Not Covered Yet And Like Roger Corman And Jim Wynorksi, I Don’t Know If I Will Ever Be Able To Cover Every Bad Movie With A Monster This Man Has Done.
 
But let’s talk about his son Christopher here. He was born to Fred’s first wife (I believe as it is either that or his second wife) and if you know Fred or Hollywood, you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Fred completely supported his son entering the film industry if that is what he really wanted to do. In fact, he was an associate producer for Chris’ first directorial film in Reptisaurus which is also an Asylum film. But of course that is to get his son’s foot in the door as a director and Fred won’t be producing here. So this is Chris’s first film without his father’s involvement.
 
So in the first film, we had Debbie Gibson as the star and this time, we have Jaleel White aka Steve Urkel.
 

To be fair, he was also the original voice actor for Sonic The Hedgehog in two fun cartoons and one cartoon that I don’t think anyone will want to talk about. And after his 15 minutes of fame was done, he actually did not go downhill like many child stars did as he went to college and had a kid. However, at this point, he was kind of tired of Steve Urkel. So of course, Asylum was willing to pay him good money so here he is.
 
Now let’s talk about the people from Monster Crap past who are in this film and the very first person to talk about is Robert Picardo.
 
Yep, He Was Eddie Quest In 976-EVIL And Was In Munchies.
 
We also had Michael Gaglio (who was uncredited as a fisherman in Sharktopus), Tiffany Cole (who was Derek) in Sharknado, Gregory Paul Smith (who was a Bongworld Strip Club Patron in Evil Bong), and Willie R. Milloy (who played a background character in Sharknado and will be doing the same in this film).
 
Now I know normally this would be the point where I start the movie, but there is one more thing we need to talk about because to hype up this movie, Asylum tried something to get their product known by viewers of the Super Bowl without having to pay the millions of dollars needed to normally get a Super Bowl commercial. You see every year, Doritos has a contest where you can make a commercial for Doritos and they will show the winner on the Super Bowl and if you finish in the Top 3, you will get prizes. This was Asylum’s efforts in that regard.
 

But alas, it didn’t win and it didn’t even finish in the Top 3. Now if you are wondering which commercial won for that year Asylum tried to get some easy promotion for their movie, it was this.
 

Now we can talk about the actual movie.
 
It starts as most Asylum films start, with the credits.
 
Here Is The Opening Title Card
 
After some stock shots of land, we find out that this is the Democratic Republic Of Congo.
 
Sadly No Killer Apes, Tim Curry, Or Ernie Hudson In This Movie
 
Basically, it is at a diamond mine where people are being put to work to collect diamonds. One guy thinks he found a diamond and plans on keeping it instead of giving it to the bosses, despite another worker’s pleas not to as the bosses may kill the diamond horder. Unfortunately, he gets caught pretty easily and not only that, the boss tells him that it isn’t even a diamond, but a shell of some kind. The cave starts rumbling and people try to leave, but the boss shoots his gun in the air and tells them that no one leaves. A roar is heard and the workers decide to leave and risk getting shot. Luckily for them, the boss gets eaten.
 
The Kill Happens Off Screen By The Way.
 
The Crocosaurus shows himself and he kills some of the workers too.
 
Like This Guy, Who Gets Stepped On
 
The guy who was going to sneak what he thought was a diamond gets away and we then cut to some footage of a battleship, the USS Gibson.
 
No Real Battleship In The Navy Is Named That.
 
The captain can’t make heads or tails out of any of this whale or shark stuff so he yells for Lt. Terry McCormick.
 
He Does Not “Do That”
 
He tries to impress a girl who was sent to get him, but his project still has some bugs to it. Oh and that girl he is trying to impress….is his girlfriend. She tells him to meet her in two hours for some private time. He goes to the captain and the captain (Cpt. Smalls) wants him to tell him what he sees with the sonar readings. McCormick has no idea what it is as it is neither the usual readings for whales or sharks of normal size. He wants to explore, but the captain has no time and believes that it is a pod of whales and basically says that “the shark is dead”. The shark they are talking about is of course the Mega Shark, but McCormick believes that no one truly saw it die (except for the audience of the last film).
 
McCormick tells his girlfriend that the giant shark is back based on what he saw from the readings. She of course doesn’t believe him and she tells him to calm down as it will be okay.
 
Oh, You Are So Dead, Missy.
 
She still tells him to meet her in two hours to “relieve some stress” and after he tells her he will be there, he takes equipment and gets ready to see if the beast is really still alive. He sets up his stuff and decides he is not going to meet with his girlfriend to have some naughty times. But he doesn’t have to much time to put it in the water as the Mega Shark just pops out of the water and jumps over the ship.
 
Mega Shark: YES!!!! I Free Willy’ed That Shit
 
The USS Gibson starts firing mortars at the beast, but they do no good. McCormick looks for his girlfriend, but finds her dead.
 

McCormick mourns her death and thinks it should have been him who died. But a guy drags him away from her body. The Mega Shark starts destroying parts of the boat while jumping and you get to see problems with the CGI scaling on this beast as you wonder how big this beast is.
 
Is It This Big
 
Or This Big?
 
The shark destroys the ship.
 

Good news for McCormick is he was able to get away thanks to a diving suit he found.
 

We go back to the Democratic Republic of Congo as we have our Indiana Jones in Nigel Putnam.
 

Turns out Nigel is a monster hunter and he just killed a wild hog.
 

He goes to a bar and after some small talk with the bartender, a woman in high heels shows up, definitely not in her element.
 
I Think She Got The Wrong Dress Attire For This Scene
 
She is here to ask him to deal with the monster that has been rampaging the mines. He initially turns her down, but representing her company, the woman is willing to double what he is being paid and triple it if the beast is captured. Apparently, this beast (you know it’s the Crocosaurus) has killed 34 of the company’s men and the workers won’t go back to work until they have assurances that it is taken care of. He ultimately accepts.
 
We then see a CGI copter flying over the jungles of the Congo and they land in an area that the lady thinks the creature is at. However, she really doesn’t want to go through with this and decides to try and bribe Nigel with money so they can just say it is a methane leak, but he declines, saying there is a creature as we find out the lady is standing on a footprint.
 
How Do You Miss That.
 
They go to the cave where the creature was last at and we see some body parts to let you know that Asylum can do practical, but find it a lot easier to just do crappy CGI. The woman recoils upon seeing the body parts and goes to a nearby swamp and she comes across some regular crocodiles. And somehow she does not realize that she is standing on the actual Crocosaurus.
 
Again, How Do You Miss That???
 
And she gets eaten…..offscreen.
 
Lame….
 
Nigel runs and hides in a cave. Thankfully for him, this cave is too small for the Crocosaurus to get into so he lives. He then does he dumb thing and run out of the cave and gets eaten.
 

But as soon as I say that, somehow the Crocosaurus just lets him go.
 
How Is This Possible???
 
Also, The Crocosaurus falls and it may be dead.
 
We then go to a warehouse where two guys get a call from Nigel. Nigel tells them that he is coming by with the “captured” Crocosaurus. They don’t believe him, but he proves them wrong by showing up with it.
 
Oh Come On, Asylum….You Just Literally Just Photoshopped A Picture Of A Crocodile Onto This Scene.
 
They say that Nigel using the boat to get this thing elsewhere will cost 50% and he ultimately agrees so they go boating. We then go to Los Angeles.
 

We are in an interrogation room as McCormick is being interrogated about what happened on the USS Gibson. McCormick wants the data to the Mega Shark, but another woman comes in and kicks the interrogator out.
 

She reveals herself as Special Agent Hutchinson with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She wants him to join their elite group of mercenaries that are here to kill the Mega Shark. He accepts as he feels partially responsible for what happened to the USS Gibson and his girlfriend. We then go to another ship that is in the Atlantic Ocean.
 

It is of course the boat where the Crocosaurus (it isn’t dead, only tranquilized) is and it turns out the Crocosaurus had eggs.


Nigel and the boat captain have a conversation and Nigel says that all the Crocosaurus was doing was protecting her nest. Unfortunately, the Mega Shark decides to show up.
 

The actions of the Mega Shark in rocking the boat causes the Crocosaurus to wake up. The boat crew frees the Crocosaurus in hopes that the two beasts will fight and leave the boat alone. We then go to the USS Lexington, which I guess is nearby.
 
A Name Of Several Ships, All Of Which Are No Longer At Sea
 
A copter lands and it is of course Hutchinson and McCormick. We are then introduced to Admiral Calvin.
 
Hi, Robert Picardo
 
He of course really wants to kill the creature so he can smoke a very expensive cigar he bought, which he plans to do as celebration for killing the Mega Shark. He welcomes both McCormick and Hutchinson to his ship. He says that everyone here is dedicated to killing the Mega Shark and asks McCormick if he understands that killing the Mega Shark must be his only purpose, which he says yes to. He also wants to see McCormick’s experiment (a mechanized shark repellant) in action so McCormick is sent to his new lab. Calvin then gets a memo and tells Hutchinson that he has to send her out again as they got another hit with that cargo ship, which there are survivors.
 
At a very small island, kids are putting sand on a recently washed up Nigel and an old guy has to yell at the kids. Putnam also washed ashore with the guy he was talking to about transporting the creature (whose name is Leon).
 

Nigel wakes up and screws with the kids before letting them go. Leon then quits on this mission. And if you are wondering where Nigel is going, it’s to the nearest bar.
 
Hey, After Surviving A Ship Wreck Due To A Monster, I Would Get A Drink Too.
 
Unfortunately he has no cash, but fortunately for him, Hutchinson arrives to recruit him. He talks about the Crocosaurus and is forced to come with Hutchinson. He is an asshole the whole way there.
 

Meanwhile, McCormick likes his new lab.
 

Apparently, the crew is aware there is another monster thanks to the readings on the attacks. We then get a scene where the Crocosaurus kills a random fisherman.
 
Hey, We At Least Get To See This Kill
 
Back at the USS Lexington, Nigel is brought in to meet the crew and tells them about the Crocosaurus. Of course, Nigel and McCormick know each other as Nigel had the hots for McCormick’s girlfriend (who we learn was McCormick’s fiancĂ©e). Oh and apparently, the navy knows where the Crocosaurus eggs are. McCormick wants Nigel gone, but Nigel shows them a crocodile shell. Calvin takes the shell away for analysis and McCormick has issues with them dealing with both the Mega Shark and the Crocosaurus. Calvin then sends Hutchinson and McCormick to go with Putnam and get the egg.
 
In the helicopter ride, both Nigel and Terry argue over their pasts as Hutchinson basically has to tell the two to shut it.
 
Don’t Make Her Pull Over This Helicopter To Smack You Two Around
 
They go on the island beach. As Terry sets up the sonar, Nigel and Hutchinson go into the cave to check on the eggs. They don’t find the eggs there, but when they go back….they see that there are a bunch of eggs underwater. Terry then gives Nigel some headphones and asks what he hears. Putnam basically tells him that the eggs have either hatched or are hatching based on the chirping. They then see the Mega Shark nearby.
 

Hutchinson wants to have the coordinates so the ship can launch an offensive on the two monsters, but Putnam doesn’t want them to destroy the eggs, obviously seeing money in them. She yells at him about this being a threat to national security so damn him and his plans to make money off the eggs. But the arguments kind of end as they have to get away as the Mega Shark is eating the eggs.
 

This pisses off the Crocosaurus who busts through a cliff like the Kool-Aid Man.
 
Oh Yeah!!!
 
Planes are sent to the location and they fire missiles at the two monsters. Unfortunately, they destroy some eggs so now the Crocosaurus is pissed off at them as well as the Mega Shark. Both Nigel and Terry agree that they need to attack the two monsters instead of the eggs and warn people nearby to evacuate so they can avoid the two monsters. Calvin says they have already started the evacuation and the National Guard is the lead on that. We then learn the Crocosaurus is heading to Miami and the Mega Shark is gonna have to deal with a submarine in the USS Reliant.
 
Actual Submarine That Is Still At Sea
 
The Reliant shoots a torpedo, but the Mega Shark grabs it with his mouth and jumps to throw it away.
 

Meanwhile, the Crocosaurus is destroying Miami.
 
Destroying A Place With The Japanese Poster For The First Movie
 
Terry says that they need to find a way to drive the Crocosaurus back home. Meanwhile, we have a reporter who is covering the Crocosaurus on a helicopter.
 

And the Crocosaurus immediately destroys the helicopter.
 
Aww Man….
 
Terry then comes up with an arc flash with about a thousand amps or more will have enough electrical force that it will drive back the Crocosaurus. And to do so, they need to get to the Turkey Point Nuclear Facility, which isn’t that far away. Basically they need to create an arc flash with a nuclear reactor. Hutchinson says she will call ahead to prepare for their arrival. And they better do it soon as the tanks and fighter planes are doing nothing to the Crocosaurus. 
 
Apparently, they called ahead to Calvin who says to call the Turkey Point Nuclear Facility now. We immediately go there.
 

One of the guys under Calvin (named CQO Butowski) calls Turkey Point to get them to do an arc flash. The guy at the facility says he doesn’t think they can do that and Butowski that this is a direct order from the Chief of Naval Operations to do it so he better fucking do it. Also the arc flash needs to hit Orlando, while the creature is in Miami.
 
Yeah…I Think That’s A Pretty Huge Miss.
 
So then we go to Orlando
 

And we go to Sea World….or Mega Park in this case.
 
It’s Freaking Sea World….And Yes, This Is Way Before Blackfish Ever Aired
 
And nevermind as apparently the Crocosaurus got pretty quickly to Orlando pretty quickly.
 
And Eats A Few Orcas.
 
Once Again, I Would Have To Point To How Far Miami Is From Orlando So Even With The Speed Of This Beast, It Would Take At Least A Day For The Crocosaurus To Get To Orlando.
 
The arc flash is ready and it is fired.
 

And it does…..absolutely nothing. So they do it again. And this time, it finally turns around.
 
And Goes Into Water That Definitely Isn’t The Ocean. Though If It Is In Orlando, There Is No Ocean There.
 
Back at the Lexington, Hutchinson, Terry, and Nigel are back talking with Admiral Calvin and the two creatures are still a distance apart. Nigel wants one of the Crocosaurus eggs to dissect so we can know how to deal with the Crocosaurus and Calvin says some of them are on the USNS Invincible which should be on their way.
 
A Real Name For A Ship…..But That Ship Isn’t A Submarine
 
On that sub, a scientist is looking at one of the eggs and it’s about to hatch. But that doesn’t matter as the Mega Shark decides to chomp on the sub.
 

Helicopters have two more eggs and the Mega Shark eats them as well….offscreen. Apparently, we find out that the eggs may be a lure as the shark likes eating them. Nigel suggests they use any other eggs they find to the Panama Canal as it will attract both the hungry Mega Shark and the protective mommy Crocosaurus. Terry thinks it is a bad idea since anything can happen and it is too close to civilization. But Nigel is insistent that this will work and Calvin ultimately gives the order to bring any other eggs to the Panama Canal, which by the way the Panamanian government owns so you will need to get their okay for this idea.
 
Calvin tells Terry to bring his balls to the canals (which last I checked were repellants) since they don’t have any eggs right now as he is going to tell the president that they are going to blow up international waters. Basically, the balls are being reworked to now be luring the creature in instead of repelling them and of course, Terry doesn’t even know it will work. But nevermind as Nigel knows where he can get some actual eggs, which is where his ship went down. Calvin sends the USS Argonaut to get the eggs.
 
Real Name For An Actual Submarine, But That Sub Was Sold To Canada And Is Now The HMCS Rainbow
 
The USS Argonaut goes to get the eggs and they find them, so they send divers to go get the eggs. Meanwhile at the canal, Terry McCormick tries to rework his repellants into lures to attract both the Mega Shark and the Crocosaurus. But he is stopped because he won’t need to since the Argonaut got the eggs, put them on copters, and those copters have put the eggs in the water.
 
There Are A Few Other Copters With Eggs As Well As This One
 
Terry then decides he wants to use his machine now and says to let him lower his machines to try and get them together, even though they aren’t needed. However, Hutchinson is thinking smart and tells them that they just need to capture the creatures and bomb the hell out of the place. And we hear from Butowski and Calvin that the Mega Shark and Crocosaurus are on their way, as planned. The Mega Shark destroys a few more ships on his way. With both animals now in the Panama Canal, we finally get the fight this title has hyped us up for.
 
Or Playing “Whose Tail Will Be Ripped Off First”, Who Knows?
 
Both creatures cause a tsunami in the middle of their fight and the area around the Panama Canal is completely flooded.
 
Did I Do That????
 
The two continue the fight as all of Panama is now underwater just like Atlantis. Also, with Asylum movies, shots of the monsters fighting are used multiple times to pad out the film. Meanwhile, both Nigel and Terry believe the Crocosaurus laid hundreds of eggs, most of which the Mega Shark has eaten. A woman on the USS Lexington has found thousands of Crocosaurus eggs that the Mega Shark has not eaten yet so of course, they have to be destroyed before they hatch. Unfortunately some of the eggs are already hatching off….
 
Oh Come The Fuck On Asylum!!!! That’s Bullshit And You Know It.
 
So now there are a bunch of baby Crocosaurus in Southern California.
 
They May Be Hard To See Due To The Water Color….But They Are There
 
They have attacked the Santa Monica pier and the USS Carter (a nuclear sub that actually freaking exists and is at sea today) wants to know what to do, since they are following the creatures. But they are heading to a seismically active area and if the babies get there, the sub cannot follow. Oh and all of this is told to us via dialogue and not shown at all because why would we have time to do that. Hutchinson then just says that the Mega Shark is heading to Hawaii so yes, apparently the Mega Shark also has speed that would make shark from Jaws: The Revenge blush.
 
Aww Man, It Took Me Several Days To Get From Massachusetts To Bermuda.
 
Also, this means that whole Panama plan basically amounted to….
 
Absolutely Nothing
 
Calvin has no problem with all this news as he plans to nuke the creatures to kingdom come. Oh and we see the Mega Shark is heading to Hawaii while chasing the Crocosaurus.
 
Jeez….Someone Might Have Wanted To Explain That
 
Oh And The USS Carter Is Chasing Them.
 
The USS Carter fires on the Mega Shark.
 
And Misses.
 
Terry says they need to stop shooting and missing because if one of those nuclear missiles hit a volcano, all of Hawaii is destroyed.
 
Yeah, Let’s Not Make Stitch Sad
 
Oh and the USS Carter loses the Mega Shark. Of course, the Mega Shark doesn’t lose them as he nearly eats the sub (it missed to). Terry says that the engines need to be turned off so the shark won’t be unable to track their electrical activity. And if you are wondering if this works?
 
Of Course Not, The USS Carter Is Swallowed Whole
 
Because of this, Nigel nicely puts that the Mega Shark “just went nuclear”. Back to Terry and Nigel arguing and then they go to the helicopter where they don’t argue. Oh and there are Crocosaurus eggs in Hawaii so the creatures are there attacking Hawaii. The helicopter gets attacked by one Crocosaurus and has to make an emergency landing on the beach.
 

Terry tries to get Hutchinson out, thinking that she is his fiancĂ©e, but Nigel has to tell her that she isn’t and that Hutchinson will be fine. The Crocosaurus babies start surrounding her mother as apparently, the mother is in pain while the Mega Shark starts picking off the Crocosaurus babies by a few at a time. Terry and Nigel run as Nigel does a roll and starts firing at a Crocosaurus.
 
Terry Can’t See This Of Course
 
Nigel kills it and the two dive away from explosion.
 

More fighting between the many Crocosaurus and the one Mega Shark occurs, although it is hard to see. Nigel and Terry get on a inflatable raft with an engine that is just there and they go out to sea to try and lure the creatures away from the shore line. Also they are going to blow up a volcano to kill them. Oh and Calvin is so upset about Hutchinson’s helicopter going down that he crushes that cigar he wanted to smoke so badly.
 
The One Thing He Wanted To Do Once He Won And Now He Ruined It.
 
And finally, the device McCormick has been working so hard on…..finally works to lure the creatures to them. Nigel senses the creatures are getting to close so he books it out of there, which causes Terry to drop his lure near a underwater volcano. Terry reveals he set a bomb on the device and is about to detonate. The two men say that it was nice working with each other.
 
Just Kiss You Two!!!!!
 
Oh and they then see that Hutchinson is still alive and has now got the helicopter to fly again.
 

The two get picked up at the beach while the Mega Shark and Crocosaurus are fighting and the babies are just watching. The detonation goes off and the monsters are destroyed.
 

Hutchinson reports that the creatures are toast and everyone in the USS Lexington celebrates. Calvin is still able to smoke part of that cigar he crushed and he is happy.
 
Ahh….Sweet Tobacco Glory
 
And with Hutchinson, Terry, and Nigel smiling, this mess is mercifully over…except for a post credit scene. Nigel and Jean are hanging out where Nigel talks about how he is going to Japan to deal with a giant lizard. Jean will be joining him as long as there are no boats involved.
 
Thankfully That Movie Was Never Made
 
So if you want to know how this movie did, you really shouldn’t bother with Asylum as they are a straight to DVD company and will release things if they feel like it. The Mega Shark has since been in two more battles (one with a Mecha Shark and the other with Kolossus (a monster inspired by one of the titans in Attack On Titan)). Nobody has really advanced their career since this film (except for Sheaun McKinley (who played USS Carter Sonar Tech) who has since went on to be Malcolm in the TV show known as The Neighborhood) and unlike the last induction where everyone has freaking died, no cast or director has died since this film.
 
Now for my thoughts on the film and let’s just say I would rather watch Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus over Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus. This film seems to be extremely geographically challenged and for the most part seems to be a bore to get through. I mean, the actors are fine in their roles, but there is nothing for me to ultimately grab onto and enjoy except for the whole guess which ships are still at sea, which ones no longer exists, which ones have been decommissioned and which are made up. The whole Crocosaurus eggs subplot is completely pointless and should have been cut from the film. Also, if something happens, please show us instead of tell us. Lastly, stop having offsceen kills because you are Asylum, dammit!!! Ultimately, this is a skip.
 
So what is next from Gus Richlen???
 
Oh Goodie….More Sharks And As An Added Bonus, A Wild Stephen Baldwin Appears

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