The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course [Blu-ray]

Director: John Stainton John Stainton

Overview

Crikey! Following a brief cameo in Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), hyperactive, high-energy cable television star and native Australian naturalist Steve Irwin parlays his success as a confronter of all things scaly, fanged, and venomous into this feature-film adventure. Irwin and his wife Terri Irwin play themselves as animal activists who rescue an endangered crocodile, not realizing that the critter has swallowed a downed top-secret satellite beacon that's the subject of an intense search by CIA personnel. Believing that the spies are poachers out to steal the animal's precious hide, the Irwins evade their pursuers while attempting to get the crocodile to safety in a remote area of the Outback, adopting an orphaned joey (a baby kangaroo), and grappling with bird-eating spiders and poisonous snakes along the way. In the meantime, the secret agents mistakenly believe the Irwins are enemy operatives trying to steal their highly valuable technology. The real-life Irwins donated all of their fees from The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (2002) to wildlife conservation efforts.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/25/2023
UPC:	0850035985380
Original Release:	2002
Rating:	PG
Source:	Sandpiper Pictures
Language:	English
Time:	1:30:00
Sales rank:	33,333

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Steve Irwin	Himself,Herself
Magda Szubanski	Brozzie Drewitt
David Wenham	Sam Flynn
Aden Young	Ron Buckwhiler
Kenneth Ransom	Robert Wheeler
Kate Beahan	Jo Buckley
Steve Bastoni	Deputy Director Reynolds
Steven Vidler	Deputy Director Ansell
Alyson Standen	Anne Milking
Alex Ruiz	CIA Agent
David Franklin	CIA Agent
Lachy Hulme	Vaughan Archer
Chris Morris	Canberra Space Technician
Todd Levi	Canberra Space Technician
Christopher Gordon	Conductor
Mark McDuff	Composer

Technical Credits

John Stainton

Holly Sloan

John Stainton	Director,Producer,Screenwriter
Chris Anderson	Stunts
Charlie Armstrong	Special Effects
Judi Bailey	Producer,Producer
Alison Barrett	Casting
Chris Godfrey	Special Effects
Arnold Rifkin	Producer
David Woodland	Special Effects
Bruce Willis	Producer
Jason Ballantine	Special Effects
Renee Bowen	Stunts
Lester Bishop	Key Grip
Steven Robinson	Stunts
Mick Corrigan	Stunts
Darko Tuscan	Stunts
Harry Ward	Special Effects
Craig Dunn	Stunts
Marney Commens	Stunts
Luke Eccleston	Stunts
Holly Sloan	Screenwriter
Mitch Deans	Stunts
Steve Irwin	Stunts
Michelle Comerford	Stunts
Neil Fanning	Stunts
Zelie Thompson	Stunts
Ray Anthony	Stunts
Paul Brincat	Sound/Sound Designer
Wayne Pashley	Sound/Sound Designer
Greg Burgmann	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

For every Mission: Impossible there are at least ten TV show–based films that land on the screen with a thud. But with hyperkinetic Australian eccentric Steve Irwin at the helm, The Crocodile Hunter's big-screen premiere would be hard-pressed not to entertain. For his foray into filmdom, Animal Planet's Irwin plays it close to the khaki vest, and the result is surprisingly engaging -- if you think nature's pretty cool and get a bit of giddy delight each time he shouts "Crikey!" The plot follows Steve and his wife-cum-adventure partner, Terri, as they traverse the Outback, interacting with animals and preaching conservationism. Unbeknownst to the Irwins, part of a U.S. government satellite has crashed to earth, where it was swallowed by an ornery 12-foot croc. When covert agencies come looking for it, Steve thinks they are poachers and outmaneuvers them at every turn in order to keep the croc out of their hands. Director John Stainton devotes most of the 89 minutes to letting Steve be Steve. Like a Tasmanian Devil on his fifth cup of Joe, Irwin whizzes through the movie, tangling with a venomous, bird-eating spider, rescuing a helpless kangaroo joey, and wrestling crocs with characteristic aplomb. If Collision Course often seems like little more than a long installment of his show, it is an especially good one. Irwin is no Mel Gibson. He’s not even a Paul Hogan. He is simply himself -- a uniquely fearless, affable adventurer on a mission to educate and amaze. The Special Edition DVD offers a making-of documentary, a featurette on working with wild beasts, and several deleted scenes with introductions by director John Stainton.

Barnes & Noble - Peter Marchand

The contagious gusto of nutty bloke Steve Irwin has given pause to many a restless channel surfer, who stop on his Animal Planet show to witness the one time he recoils from a springing crocodile a smidgeon too late. It turns out his mixture of clowning and teaching is enough to carry a children's movie, and that this movie maintains that fascination factor necessary to keep older viewers from squirming -- not unlike Irwin's poisonous snakes, which he handles as though emboldened by a pact with the devil. The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course works because writer-producer-director John Stainton doesn't try to make actors of Irwin and his wife Terri, letting them play themselves rather than Indiana Jones or Crocodile Dundee-style adventurers, as well as talk to deadly wildlife instead of human actors. Stainton splits the narrative between the familiar pursuits of the Irwins and the kooky CIA retrieval mission, even changing the aspect ratio from the rectangular cinema format to the square TV format to distinguish them. When the plots do finally collide near the end, it's clever and humorous: As he grapples with one of the suits atop a moving SUV, Irwin continues to address the camera as though he were simply encountering a nastier species of predator. These fun moments come at the cost of a B-movie production design and an anonymous cast of bland performers, but there's one notable exception: the rotund, cartoonish Magda Szubanski, offering an irascible variation on her Mrs. Hoggett character from Babe. Crocodile Hunter does have its moments -- but it would be just as well to wait and accidentally discover it while channel surfing.

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