Alligator (1980)

 We all have those movies that go way back. I remember seeing this in the 80s, recording on VHS for my *then* VHS library in the 90s, looking for it wherever it might appear. The giant alligator emerging from the city sewer system to munch on human food, including a birthday kid in his swimming pool and a cop after bursting from a sidewalk with local teenagers hitting the bricks. Silva's great hunter is chomping at the bit to nag this one with his rifle, while Forster is trying to keep what little rep he has as a cop intact, despite setbacks including losing a young beat cop during a hunt and not being able to find the alligator even with loads of police force and SWAT. Robin Riker is the pretty redhead reptile specialist who Forster will open himself up to at a certain point but because he loses those close to him won't commit to all the way, as the mayor has close ties to the Mr. Moneybags (Dean Jagger; "White Christmas") running a pharma company using growth hormones on animals discarded by a vet getting a few extra bucks to provide a scientist "spare parts" to experiment on.

Sayles bringing the monster movie to a 1980 urban setting, complete with a police chief under pressure by the mayor to use whatever means are necessary to get the alligator so both of their jobs are salvaged. Doing that isn't easy. Seeing Silva get gobbled up in an alley while three locals look on in horror is epic. And, of course, there's the Jaws underwater pursuit where a victim gets his legs eaten off.

But the wedding ceremony that gets wrecked with the staff getting swatted by giant tail or caught in the scaly beast's chompers is an outright masterpiece of carnage. The mayor caught in the alligator's mouth and hurled into Jagger's car (with Jagger locking the door on him!) before the creature just smashes the automobile into metal mulch is just primo cherry on the top after the wedding is crashed on.

Of course, the one cop and scientist to stop it when no one else can is the big finale in the sewers (where it all began). Sayles includes the cop movie cliche of Forster being haunted from losing his partner during a criminal act where he "froze" and those in his precinct considering him a joke with his claims of a giant alligator. We even get a big alligator KABOOM! at the end that I always appreciate. I like how the leads are written...they are fun to watch and have great chemistry. Forster in the lead always makes me smile and I just thought Riker was a beauty. The teenagers being all obnoxious and thumbing their noses at authority cracked me up.