Lake Placid

This under-appreciated gem takes the trademark banter and wit of David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, The Practice) and transplants it into a classic Giant Scary Animal plotline.

Bridget Fonda is a museum researcher impulsively escaping a bad dumping, Bill Pullman a straight-laced state fish and game ranger, and Brendan Gleeson the local law enforcement who wishes all these out-of-towners would get out. Throw in Oliver Platt as an over-the-top rich science dabbler plus Betty White in one of her very best cranky old broad roles and you get a monster film in which you're almost sorry to have the monster interrupt the live humans.

For monster film fans, that will be the disappointment. The giant croc is well-handled, but Kelley is interested in making a curious little hybrid here, and it works quite well. Like Tremors, it's a sort of mutated descendant of Ghostbusters. Sharp, funny, never exactly inspiring terror or horror, but still possessing a bit of a kick. The star here is not the monster, but a well crafted script delivered by a crackerjack cast.