Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles



Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (also known as Crocodile Dundee III) is a 2001 action comedy film directed by Simon Wincer and starring Paul Hogan. It is the sequel to Crocodile Dundee II (1988) and the third film of the Crocodile Dundee series. Hogan and Linda Kozlowski reprise their roles as Michael "Crocodile" Dundee and Sue Charlton, respectively. The film was shot on location in Los Angeles and in Queensland. Actor Paul Hogan reported that the inspiration for the storyline came during a tour of Litomyšl, Czech Republic in 1993.

Plot
At the beginning of the film, protagonist Michael "Crocodile" Dundee (Paul Hogan) is living in the Australian outback with Sue Charlton (Linda Kozlowski) and their young son Mikey (Serge Cockburn). Because crocodile hunting has been made illegal, Mick is reduced to wrestling crocodiles for the entertainment of tourists, having as his rival in the business another outback survivalist named Jacko (Alec Wilson). When an opportunity arises for Sue to become the Los Angeles bureau chief of a newspaper owned by her father, Mick and his family cross the Pacific to California.

In the United States, both Mick and his son have encounters with the locals, causing cross-cultural mishaps. Mick becomes an undercover amateur sleuth, helping to probe the mysterious death of his wife's predecessor at the newspaper, while Mikey attends a local school, where he quickly impresses his classmates and teacher with his outback survival skills. Because the case takes up so much of their time, Mick and Sue eventually call in Jacko to babysit their son; immediately, Jacko and Mikey's teacher become interested in each other.

It is revealed that the dead reporter had been investigating a film studio, which is about to make a sequel to the action film Lethal Agent, despite the title's commercial failure. Mick becomes suspicious when several paintings from Southern Europe are brought onto the set; although at first he suspects drug smuggling, the pictures themselves are revealed to be missing art from a museum in former Yugoslavia, thought lost in the recent civil wars. They are to appear in the film as mere props, to be publicly 'destroyed' in a scene in which they are set on fire, at which point they will have been exchanged for copies.

Attempting to secure one of the paintings as evidence, Mick, Sue, and Jacko run afoul of the studio director and his thugs. Using the studio's props and three lions used in filming to defeat the gangsters, Mick and Sue solve the case and return to Australia, where they are officially married.

Cast

 * Paul Hogan as Michael "Crocodile" Dundee
 * Linda Kozlowski as Sue Charlton
 * Jere Burns as Arnan Rothman
 * Jonathan Banks as Miloš Drubnik
 * Alec Wilson as Jacko
 * Gerry Skilton as Nugget O'Cass
 * Steve Rackman as Donk
 * Serge Cockburn as Michael "Mikey" Dundee
 * Aida Turturro as Jean Ferraro
 * Paul Rodriguez as Diego
 * Kaitlin Hopkins as Miss Mathis

Reception
Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles holds a rating of 11% (out of 80 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes, the consensus reads: "A sequel as unnecessary as it is belated, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles lacks virtually all of the easygoing humor and charm that delighted fans of the original." The film was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Remake or Sequel but lost to Planet of the Apes.

Box office
The film grossed $7,759,103 at the box office in Australia. The film debuted in 4th place at the US box office behind Bridget Jones's Diary (which was #1 in its second weekend), Spy Kids and Along Came a Spider. It grossed $39 million worldwide, below the total gross of the previous two films. In a 2017 interview, comedian and actor Tom Green stated that the box office receipts for his film Freddy Got Fingered did not reflect the actual attendance, as he thinks that movie goers under the age of seventeen bought tickets to Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles and snuck into the theater showing his film.