Miraculously surviving from the previous "Lack Placid 3" (2010) movie, salty and snarling Yancy Butler (as Reba) kills the offending crocodile. After the credits, Ms. Butler's marksmanship has landed her a job assisting beautiful blue-eyed Elisabeth Rohm (as Theresa Giove), the new Lake Placid sheriff. The killer crocodiles are still around, but have grown bigger and more blood-thirsty than ever. Authorities have enclosed them in a fenced area, hoping to starve them to extinction. They've survived by eating each other, but still prefer humans. Butler thinks handsome fencer Paul Nicholls (as Ryan Loflin) has a "nice ass." We never receive positive confirmation of this from director Don Michael Paul, but female buttocks are very nicely represented...
Butler takes a back seat, as we focus on two co-starring couples. First up, an attraction develops between Ms. Rohm and Mr. Nicholls. Then, their grown-up children also become attracted to each other. Her daughter is pretty Poppy Lee Friar (as Chloe) and his son is cute Benedict Smith (as Max). The four are individually well-cast, but there is a problem with Nicholls and son Smith. Whenever they share the screen, they send off a strong gay vibe. This is mostly due to the two actors appearing too close in age to be playing father and son. They also look nothing like a father and son – in fact, in all their scenes together, they look like a couple. Nothing wrong with this, of course, but it seems slightly off-kilter...
Possible subtext aide, writer David Reed and the Syfy TV movie team make this sequel a little better than the last two. The story has better development and the characters are generally appealing. Continuity is provided in a nice scene with Ms. Friar's swim team (aka crocodile bait). As a bonus, "Nightmare on Elm Street" star Robert Englund shows up as another nutty member of the "Bickerman" family. None of these improvements are earth-shattering, however, and they don't make "Lake Placid: The Final Chapter" much more than mindless trash. The special effects are worse, if that's possible. The cheap-looking monster crocodiles are unimpressive. You get blood and gore, but no suspense. Finally, this doesn't seem like "The Final Chapter"...
**** Lake Placid: The Final Chapter (9/29/12) Don Michael Paul ~ Elisabeth Rohm, Paul Nicholls, Yancy Butler, Benedict Smith
