Alligator

Directed by Lewis Teague, Alligator follows Robert Forster’s David Madison as he teams up with a herpetologist (Robin Riker’s Marisa Kendall) to find and kill the rampaging title creature. Filmmaker Teague, armed with a script by John Sayles, delivers an erratic yet mostly watchable endeavor that does grow more and more compelling as it progresses, admittedly, and there’s little doubt, as well, that Alligator benefits substantially from the top-notch efforts of its various performers – with Forster’s predictably commanding work here going a long way towards compensating for the picture’s less-than-enthralling stretches. (It doesn’t hurt, either, that Forster and Riker are quite charming together and their chemistry is oftentimes rather palpable.) And although the movie boasts plenty of alligator-chomping-on-people action, particularly within a gleefully over-the-top party sequence towards the end, Alligator‘s overall impact is hindered by an almost episodic narrative that contains exceedingly (and distressingly) little in the way of forward momentum – which, when coupled with a dimly-lit, far-from-spellbinding climax, ultimately does cement the film’s place as a decent-enough thriller that feels like it should be much, much better.

**1/2 out of ****