Movie Review: The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course

You guys might remember a few blogs back that I am a huge fan of the late Steve Irwin aka The Crocodile Hunter and how happy I was to hear that his family would be returning to Animal Planet (if not you can check it out here). I used to watch Steve all time when I was a kid and so when I heard that he was doing a feature length movie in 2002 there was NO WAY my family was gonna miss out on it. Spoilers ahead as usual. I DO NOT OWN THE PICTURE.

While Steve and Terri Irwin (playing themselves with their dog Sui) are filming a documentary about the Australia wildlife’s less known creatures a piece of a US owned satellite breaks off; landing in Australia where it is promptly eaten by a crocodile. CIA Agent Buckwhiler (Ron Young) and Deputy Director Reynolds (Steve Bastoni) tell CIA agents Robert Wheeler (Lachy Hulme) and Vaughn Archer (Kenneth Ransom) to Australia to find the beacon, saying in the wrong hands the world would be at stake. Meanwhile Department Director Ansell (Steve Vidler), wanting to capitalize on the opportunity and take the Deputy Director position sends another agent, Jo Buckley (Kate Beahen) to find the beacon first. Meanwhile the same crocodile who swallowed the beacon has been giving trouble for cattle station owner Brozzie Drewitt (Magda Szubanski) as it keeps eating her cows. Brozzie tries to kill the croc, which is illegal as one of the workers for the Department of Fauna and Fisheries Sam Flynn (David Wenham) keeps reminding her, but she won’t listen. Flynn hires Steve and Terri to re-locate the croc and they unknowingly get caught in the CIA’s cross-hairs; Steve believes he’s in the middle of a poaching war while the agents believe he will use the beacon to pay for the Australia Zoo’s multi-million dollar expansion. About as far as I can go without spoiling the rest of the movie.

Interesting fact about this movie: Steve and Terri improvised everything (as they do on their show) and when the other actors would interact with Steve only then would they know what was going on so they could ad-lib. From what I remembered about Steve and Terri this did not surprise me one bit. Now I will admit this is very cheesy when we aren’t with the Irwins, but that is what makes the movie fun. Whenever this airs on TV (and it hasn’t watched it recently) I always DVR it. It is still just as funny as I remembered watching it when I was a kid, but there is still a twinge of sadness I feel when I watch Steve knowing he is no longer here. While I never met Steve, nor probably won’t be traveling to Australia anytime soon to meet the rest of the Irwin family, I’d like to think he is proud of his family and what they are doing. I will always watch this movie, and I recommend you do as well, and I will of course be watching this fall when the Irwins return to Animal Planet.

The Irwin Family Is Coming Back To Animal Planet

I know you were probably expecting me to do a movie review, but I wanted to do something different today after what I saw on Facebook the other day; the Irwin family (Terri, Bindi and Robert) will be returning to Animal Planet this fall and I am both happy and sad at the same time. Allow me to explain.

When I was a kid I loved animals, not just dogs and cats but wild animals. Because obviously I couldn’t go near them my parents had my brother and I read books and watch a couple of shows to learn more about our favorite animals; one of those shows was The Crocodile Hunter and Croc Files staring the late Steve Irwin. My family, not just myself, thought he was one of the coolest and funniest guys on the planet. He and his lovely wife Terri would go out and tell the audience about the animals we wanted to know more about, and some I did not even know existed. We also went to see Steve’s movie: The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course when it came out, I do plan on reviewing that at a later time. I did not watch many of the animal shows when I got older, but Steve was still near and dear to my family.

On September 4, 2006 Steve was filming when the animal for his documentary, a sting ray, lifted its tail to defend itself and the bard hit Steve in the heart, causing him to bleed to death before the paramedics could arrive. My family was actually watching the news later that day, I don’t even remember what we were talking about prior or what network it was but the next thing we heard was “Steve Irwin the man known as The Crocodile Hunter has died.” I swear we all whipped our heads to the TV as the news anchor went into details. I immediately began to cry, my mom went over to hug me and my dad actually went upstairs to change his shirt, he had a Crocodile Hunter shirt and wanted to wear it in Steve’s memory. We were all heartbroken that day, but my thoughts immediately went to Terri, Bindi and Robert. I watched Entertainment Tonight for more coverage on Steve and the Irwin family and watched Bindi’s eulogy. I was very impressed with how strong Bindi was and saw a bit of her father in her. A few years later I watched Bindi when she was on, and won, Dancing with the Stars and loved how much of a woman she has become; and yes when she and Derek Hough did that dance to Footprints in the Sand and ended with the picture of her and her dad I cried. This brings me to today.

I saw a video from the Australian Zoo’s Facebook page with clips of Steve talking about how he would step aside from what he loved when his kids are ready to take over his mission. I got a little misty eyed because while I think he saw Bindi do a little when she had her own show Robert was only three; he did not get the chance to see what his son would do (P.S. not just with Bindi but when I look at Robert I see his dad every time.) The video continues with Terri, Bindi and Robert talking about the Australian Zoo and the animals there. The video said the Irwin family would return to Animal Planet this fall and I do not know how but I stopped myself from crying. I immediately shared the video with my mom, told my dad when I got home; bottom line we are watching the show. Someday I’d love to go to Australia, visit the zoo and maybe if I’m lucky get to meet the Irwin family and talk about how much Steve meant to me and my family. A girl can dream. Thank you Steve for the amazing memories, we miss you every day and I know he is proud of Terri, Bindi, Robert and everyone at the Australia Zoo. I will be watching the new Irwin show this fall, and I encourage you guys to do the same.