Lake Placid

(Fox)

Ally McBeal writer David E. Kelley orchestrates a bubbly parade of stark personas lurking Maine lakeside -- not to mention the mother of all crocodiles. Bridget Fonda and Bill Pullman are amiable and romantically awkward as the wilderness-naive paleontologist from the big city and the authoritarian game warden, but the film belongs to "Golden Girl" Betty White as the reclusive old bat who coddles the ravenous reptile and employs obscenity with gut-wrenching precision.