Game warden Nathan Bickerman (Colin Ferguson of Eureka), his wife, Susan (Kristy Mitchell), and their son, Conner (Jordan Grehs), are the new owners of Delores' old house, and while cleaning it out, they decide to move in until the housing market changes a bit and it is easier to sell the land. What Nathan and Susan don't realize is that Conner has discovered a trio of small crocs in the lake and has started feeding them. He, of course, keeps it quiet, fearing that his father will put them to sleep.
Fast-forward a couple of years and not only have the little reptiles grown up quite a bit, but Nathan's work has led him to discover a declining population in elk. While he constantly complains to the new sheriff, Tony (Michael Ironside), the officer's constant calls about imaginary crocodile has left him very suspicious about any possible real attacks, so when Nathan starts voicing his suspicions, Sheriff Willinger feels its another wolf cry.
Meanwhile, a few more groups show up at the lake. Reba (Yancy Butler) is a free-lance hunter who hires herself out to small groups wanting to bag endangered animals. Her current party includes Jonas (Atanas Srebrev), Walt (Donald Anderson) and Brett (Mark Evans), and one of them seems to have ulterior motives to going on the hunt. The other new group includes a quartet of college students. These are Ellie (Kacey Barnfield), Aaron (Nils Hognestad), Tara (Angelica Penn) and Charlie (Brian Landon), and their weekend getaway is going to turn out to be more than they bargained for.
What results are a lot of attacks by badly CG'ed crocodiles all over the lake where many of the main characters will die off before the last of the leatherheads are finally taken care of, supposedly. I have to say though, while the movie's villains were very fake looking and generally bad, both the acting and the action were surprisingly good. Even some of the lesser-known actors do a competent job. Of course, none of it compares to the original film, but that's asking a lot.
Lake Placid 3's DVD release is unrated and contains a lot of scenes that I can't imagine being played in the original Syfy channel release. There are quite a few scenes where the lady-college students run around bare chested, and even a couple of scenes where bare bottoms are displayed (both male and female). Just a word of warning for any parents who saw this film on TV and think it is just as semi-kid friendly as that version.
