Alligator 2: The Mutation (1991)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

They honestly tried to make it good new line cinema was making it it had a higher budget but they got an awful director ,awful writers and unknown awful actors this film could have been an actually good movie that would be better then the first one or might have been a good film by itself if they talented good people to make it like they should have gotten steven spielberg as director and John McTiernan as writer i just see that would have made it good but it's just disappointing.

While others downgrade this movie, as other movies i would agree to, depending on movie. I don't see why this movie is rated so low, when there is real stupid movies out there that really is bad, even through people don't accept their bad. Or one sided.I do admit they need to kill more people in this movie, which the alligator didn't really kill many. I like Hodges, and his rookie. I even liked the blonde hair guy in it. To me compared to real stupid, movies many int he very old days, but did manage to build on the horror to make it grow into a big success than not being around at all, the real stupid movies of TROLL 2, RESIDENT EVIL extinction, which to me is a big abomination, THE BOY, WITCH <--- ANother what is this movie doing in it? i mean really! Those movies are terrible but people somehow looooove them ... i don't get them and id explain why to each if have to.But was off subject. Here we got ALLIGATOR 2, not cheap this or cheap that and no dumb CGI how it is nowadays or the animated CGI bubbly garbage. Got a guy that kicks butt, a rookie that shows hes cool though he was anyhow. The MAyor which plays on Alf as the Psychiotrist or so spelled.The alligator to me was realistic cheap deaths somewhat but really fun and the characters to me was really into them. Those movies i mentioned are bad this isn't bad at all. Not great but not bad. The bad guy deserved to die, after killing Mayor and the high chief and he would be looked at anyhow if he didn't die.And Hodges wife from the best Howling Movie the 1st one. The old guy lived which was a plus made many appearances or brief in Boy Meets World, Fresh Prince, all i know is the two guys i wanted to live lived, and well one died, but all in all solid good movie, if people want bad id eventually get more that are just plain ... Bbbbbad. THis at least had a alligator it tried to kill a lot, not cheap or dumb looking the cast was watchable and good. Not see why that poor of a rating when real terrible ones like mentioned deserve a 0.

Alligator II: The Mutation is directed by Jon Hess and written by Curt Allen. It stars Joseph Bologna, Woody Brown, Harlan Arnold, Steve Railsback and Dee Wallace Stone. Music is by Jack K. Tillar and cinematography by Joseph Mangine. A loose sequel/remake to/of Alligator 1980, "The Mutation" in question is a giant Alligator that has mutated and goes on a hungry rampage in small town Americana.I should think that not many go into a film like this expecting a high quality creature feature, but this is not even in the so bad it's good camp. This in spite of some rather nice colour photography and the presence of decent performers like Bologna, Railsback and Wallace Stone. Standard cheapo thrills apply, ole Gator is the victim of mans dabbling with chemicals/testing et all, so after shredding some unfortunates in the water, Gator goes on land to upset amusement park dwellers. Enter the determined cop and some specialist game hunters, and we are building somewhat unimaginatively to a Jaws like finale. There's a snippet of social conscious in the plot, but it's quickly passed over for more rubbery nonsense. Not even fun nonsense, and worryingly I think that the well respected actors are taking it seriously! 2/10

...but I'm not saying they'll be worth it.I had been on the lookout for ALLIGATOR II for some years now. I just had to see it. I mean, the first one is just so much fun - and really one of the few older killer-croc type of films done right - and this sequel carrying the MUTATION subtitle, plus starring both Steve Railsback and Richard Lynch, I mean... Can it honestly be that bad?Straight up, I can't really call it a bad movie. It's not badly put together, and further more, it has all the necessary elements to even make it a B-movie "in the tradition of JAWS" type of flick. We got a killer alligator loose in some city pond, eating people left and right who are unknowingly invading its territory (which extends to the sewers again). There's the protagonist detective (Joseph Bologna, a rather forgettable actor) running around, aware of the problem but believed by no-one. Dee Wallace (yipii!) plays his wife, and even with her supporting role she proves again that she's the best actress in the whole film. We have Railsback playing a greedy, corrupt man with power who plans a carnival near the pond which he refuses to cancel. And when he's informed of the alligator problem, he tries to deal with it in a hush-hush way, calling in Richard Lynch as a bounty hunter, together with Kane Hodder as his brother, no less. And finally, our killer alligator, who sadly enough doesn't look "mutated" at all, but at least it kind of looks the same as the one in the first film.So what went wrong with this film? All the ingredients really are present. The script even tries to inject some of the same type of black humor the first one had, so at least the filmmakers tried to make a sequel in the same spirit. It even has something that looks like a decent climax (involving the pond and a helicopter and all). But the problem is: None of it works. This film supposedly has everything, and even tries pretty hard, but it all just doesn't feel right. It just doesn't come together and click like the first film did. Hard to explain it, really. Plus, the alligator gets a fair amount of screen time, but it never does anything you want to see it do. People should be getting munched or at least ripped to shreds, but I can't recall any memorable death scenes. I remember Kane Hodder getting stuck in its mouth, but that's about it.When compared to the first ALLIGATOR from 1980, this sequel really is "subpar", for reasons I can't even pinpoint exactly. But as a stand-alone (as it has little ties with the first one, aside some minor bits of alligator footage being re-used) killer-alligator flick (from the 90's - and we all know what that means), it's just about moderately entertaining. Watch it if you can't resist it, just like I did. Otherwise, skip it and save yourself the inevitable disappointment.