Crikey! All Three Crocodile Dundee Films Land on Blu-ray

The 80s was the decade of films whose staying power rested not so much upon their plots but upon their memorable lines. "I'll be back." "I feel the need -- the need for speed!" "Wax on. Wax off."

And, of course, the one that can only be appreciated when done in the right accent: "That's not a knife. That's a knife."

If you were there, you're probably already remembering several other lines and scenes from Crocodile Dundee or its sequel Crocodile Dundee II. Paul Hogan, the man behind Mick "Crocodile" Dundee, came out of nowhere (technically Australia) and put the U.S. on a down-under kick. Hogan was joined by Linda Kozlowski as newspaper reporter and heiress Sue Charlton, the Man from Walkabout Creek began his adventures in the Australian outback and, as part of Sue's human interest story and social experiment, followed her back to New York city for some moments of culture clash. 

In the sequel to the film, Dundee has remained in New York as Sue's paramour, but returns to the outback when Sue is targeted by some South American drug lords who think she has information on them. Rewatching both these films, I didn't remember just how much these movies were just as much adventure as they were comedy, another hallmark of the era that gave us Indiana Jones.

The thirs film, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, came out over a decade later -- and was largely forgotten. Sue, having been living with Dundee in Walkabout Creek since the second film -- and the mother of his nine-year-old child -- gets the call to take over the Los Angeles branch of her father's newspaper. Now it's a family adventure, with Serge Cockburn as Mikey Dundee joining all the original cast members in a plot that finds Mick going undercover as an animal wrangler for a movie studio that fronts as an illegal art smuggling ring. It was a contrived situation, in a film that relied on celebrity guest stars like Mike Tyson and George Hamilton. It's biggest problem was that it felt like an 80s film in an era where those sensibilities had gone out of fashion. However, when watched in a marathon with the other two films, it's outdated approach is camouflaged and forgivable.