Rent Crocodile Dundee (1986)

Aussie RomCom still Good - Crocodile Dundee review by GI

Aussie comedian Paul Hogan wrote and starred in what he thought would be a nice little Australian comedy but this became one of the biggest grossing films of 1986. Viewed today it is guilty of cliché and it's really a clash of cultures, fish-out-of-water romcom but it exudes enormous charm and it's really funny even though there's some jokes about race and sexuality that might fall a bit flat today. The narrative falls into two neat halves, the first being the better of the two. Journalist Sue Charlton (Linda Kozlowski, in her first screen role) travels to a small town in the Australian outback in search of the story of a local man who was allegedly attacked by a crocodile, lost his leg but manages to crawl out of the bush to safety. She finds instead Mick Dundee (Hogan), a poacher who has lived all his life in the outback and he takes her on a trip into the bush where he has to save her from a crocodile. Here the seeds of a romance begin and Sue invites Mick back to New York where he finds the frenzied and trashy life of Americans very difficult to comprehend and faces the competition of Sue's fiancé for her love. The comedy of the first half is in introducing the contradictory character of Dundee and seeing a rich and somewhat naïve woman suddenly faced with the mysteries of aborigines and wild animals. The second half is more predictable with Dundee having to deal with escalators, bidets, LGBT Americans, prostitutes etc etc. The thing is it's still a funny and warm film with some great comedy moments. There were two sequels which didn't offer much new so are best avoided but this, the first, is worthy of rediscovery.