Archives Reprint

   By MIKE HUDSON

    The Roanoke Times

    Paul Hogan is an affable and funny actor who is doomed to wrangle crocodiles, fight cartoonish bad guys and sell Subaru Outbacks for the rest of his career.

    He does all of that, after a fashion, in the third installment of his Crocodile Dundee series. He misses the crocodile, catches the bad guys and cruises around L.A. in a nice Outback.

    It's not great entertainment, but as Hogan's Crocodile Dundee says after a big croc trees him: "Could be worse."

    Well, not much worse.

    "Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles" is a plodding, bland movie that produces occasional laughs by recycling Hogan's fish-out-of-water schtick: He's a rough, tough guy from the Land Down Under who has a heart of gold and a bumbling knack for exposing the pomposities and lunacies of life in a big, bustling American city.

    "Dundee III" fails because it's a crocodile with two heads - it's supposed to be a comedy and a detective thriller.

    As a comedy, it manages to at least tread water because Hogan is a likeable guy with a winning smile and a twinkle in his eye - and because of one weirdly funny scene with boxer Mike Tyson.

    For no reason having anything to do with the plot, Dundee and his 9-year-old son strike up a conversation with Tyson in a park in L.A., asking him to teach them how to meditate. After Tyson shows them how to "Exhale the negativity," Dundee tells his son, "I could tell straight away: He was a gentle man. He wouldn't hurt a fly."

    As a detective movie, "Dundee III" sinks in a swamp of suspense scenes that moviegoers have seen a million times. The two bad guys are, of course, a spoiled rich pretty boy and a heavy-accented Eastern European - the only kind of villains that seem to be allowed on the big screen these days.

    Hogan's original movie, 1986's "Crocodile Dundee," was a lucrative, fairly entertaining effort. "Crocodile Dundee II" proved to be a mildly entertaining follow-up two years later. Now, more than a decade later, "Dundee in L.A." serves as a barely entertaining vehicle for Hogan, who has kept himself in the public eye by making annoying TV commercials for sport-utility vehicles.

    But what can you do? Sequels rarely measure up to the original. Third installments are almost always dreadful. So "Dundee in L.A." does as about as well as you could expect.

    As Dundee says early on in his latest adventure, sitting in his boat waiting for a big croc to show itself: "This is as good as it gets."

    MIKE HUDSON can be reached

   at 981-3332 or mikeh@roanoke.com

    Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles

    HH

    A Paramount Pictures release showing at the Carmike 10 at Tanglewood Mall and the Valley View Grande 16. Rated PG for language and violence. One hour, 32 minutes.

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