Latest Dundee film is a real croc

Paul Hogan wants his title back. Hogan, the first mainstream croc hunter, propelled the first two "Crocodile Dundee" films past more than $600 million worldwide. Since we last saw His Hokeyness, the world has fallen in love with real-life croc hunter Steve Irwin, from Animal Planet's "The Crocodile Hunter," and even though Hogan has gone on the record swearing he'd never do another "Dundee" film, here it is.
   In "Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles," Mick "Crocodile" Dundee (Hogan) and his partner, Sue (Linda Kozlowski), have traveled far away from their tiny Australian town of Walkabout to Los Angeles, where Sue is working as bureau chief for her father's newspaper.
   Mick, who wants to expose his young son Mikey (Serge Cockburn) to the world outside Walkabout, accompanies Sue. But when Mick attempts to help Sue with an investigative story about a corrupt film company, he encounters problems fitting in and mixing with Hollywood's most elite criminals.
   This "Dundee" adventure is all about unabashed promotion. Dundee indulges in a Fosters beer to relax and he manhandles the L.A. highways from behind the wheel of a Subaru Outback - two corporations for which Hogan is a highly recognizable spokesperson.
   Even worse, to investigate the scandal, Dundee takes a tour of and subsequently gets a job at Paramount Studios - the film's distributor. Don't even try to emulate the hilarious "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" studio sequence, where Pee-Wee gleefully flees through his distributor's studio lot, crossing multiple soundstages and ruining shots everywhere he goes.
   That was funny. "Dundee" isn't.
   To emphasize that point, Mike Tyson makes a curious cameo as a random guy in a park who teaches Dundee how to meditate. I can see the audio books now: "Meditation with Mike." With his voice, they'll spawn wings and fly from the shelves. At least it would be funnier than a "Dundee" film.
   As in the second installation, where "Dundee" ran into New York stereotypes in his visit to the Big Apple, this recent trip has Dundee jibing the Southern California lifestyle from an outsider's perspective.
   Hogan reaches to make it endearingly laughable with his no-frills, no-worries self-created character, but unless you're a fan of lame "you're-not-from-here-are-you?" humor (found most recently in "Just Visiting"), stay far, far away from Dundee's L.A. escapades.
  

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