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.
Films or Television Worth Watching 