In theaters

CROCODILE DUNDEE IN LOS ANGELES. 95 minutes, PG, directed by Simon Wincer, written by Matthew Berry and Eric Abrams.

After swearing he’d never again play Crocodile Dundee in a movie, Paul Hogan returns to say “g’day!” in Simon Wincer’s “Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles,” a film whose uninspired, old-fashioned comedy will prove a tough sell in a culture smitten with the in-your-face raunch of “Freddy Got Fingered,” “See Spot Run,” “Joe Dirt” and “Say It Isn’t So.”

The film comes 15 years after the surprise 1986 hit “Crocodile Dundee” and 13 years after its 1988 sequel, “Crocodile Dundee II,” but time has done little to lift the film out of its burned-out formula. To be sure, “Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles” is never anything more than the same bloke-out-of-the-barbie shtick Hogan has been trading off for years.

Considering the wealth of bad comedies audiences are offered each week, that’s not necessarily a bad thing; “Dundee’s” cheerfully lame jokes are better than the button-pushing crap of “Freddy Got Fingered” and the doggy-do raunch of “See Spot Run.”

But after so much time away, it’s disappointing that Hogan, Wincer and screenwriters Matthew Berry and Eric Abrams were unable to come back with a sharper, wittier and more original update on Mick Dundee’s life.

The film follows Mick, his young son, Mikey (Serge Cockburn), and his live-in girlfriend, Sue (Linda Kozlowski, Hogan’s real-life partner), out of the outback and into the bright lights of Los Angeles.

The reason for the trip swirls around a job Sue is offered at her father’s newspaper when a reporter dies in a mysterious car crash while investigating a movie studio. In an effort to help Sue crack the case, Mick goes undercover at the studio as an extra in a movie, a plot twist that allows him to do what Dundee used to do so well – react to the wonders of the civilized world.

Since this is L.A., the civilized world is naturally a bit more bizarre than it would have been in Dundee’s more familiar bushes – to punctuate that fact, the film uses cameos by Mike Tyson meditating in a park and George Hamilton hitting a personal low as a man who touts the merits of coffee enemas. But since it’s getting harder to believe that Mick could be so naive about a world whose borders have blurred thanks to technology, most of these situations fall as flat as Hogan’s ho-hum delivery and Wincer’s lackluster direction.

Grade: C-

On Video and DVD

THE EMPEROR’S NEW GROOVE. 78 minutes, G, directed by Mark Dindal, written by David Reynolds.

For a moment, let’s forget “The Emperor’s New Groove” and instead focus on something more interesting – Disney’s new groove.

Finally, the studio’s animation division has taken a risk – a big one. They’ve pulled away from their tried-and-true formula to produce an animated film that’s easily one of the freshest, most exciting undertakings the studio has done in years.

By choosing not to clog the screen with computerized animation, an overabundance of song and dance numbers, and, more profoundly, a story dependent on historical fact or myth, “The Emperor’s New Groove” steers clear of the trappings that may have worked for Disney in the past, but which, in recent years, have crippled it creatively and made most of its efforts seem glumly rote.

This new movie, clearly inspired by the looser drawings of Chuck Jones and Tex Avery, exists for one reason – to be fun. Directed by Mark Dindal from a script by David Reynolds, the film follows Kuzco (voice of David Spade), a selfish, wise-cracking emperor of a mythic South American kingdom who makes the mistake of dismissing from his charge the gruesomely bony Yzma (Eartha Kitt). Furious to be fired by this little runt, Yzma, who looks like a cross between Cruella De Vil and a corpse, whips herself into a frenzy that’s so toxic, she vows to kill Kuzco with a shot of poison.

With the help of her bumbling assistant, Kronk (Patrick Warburton of “Seinfeld”), Yzma uses that poison, but it doesn’t kill Kuzco. Instead, it turns him into a llama, something Kuzco will forever be unless he finds the antidote.

With John Goodman as Pacha, a shepherd who agrees to help Kuzco if Kuzco agrees to save his home from destruction, “The Emperor’s New Groove” feels slightly too long even at 78 minutes, but that’s a quibble. Overall, the film is witty and fun, particularly whenever Yzma takes to the screen. With Eartha Kitt’s familiar growl punctuating her hilariously manic face, she is easily the best Disney villain to come along in years.

Grade: A-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays in Style, Thursdays in the scene, Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6.

He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

THE VIDEO CORNER

Renting a video? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores.

The Emperor’s

New Groove ? A-

Little Nicky ? F

One Day in

September ? B+

Bamboozled ? B+

Finding Forrester ? B+

The Ladies Man ? D+

Bounce ? B+

Men of Honor ? C-

Space Cowboys ? B+

Girlfight ? A-

102 Dalmatians ? B+

The Legend of

Bagger Vance ? D

Kestrel’s Eye ? A

Red Planet ? C+

Rugrats in Paris ? B+

Time Regained ? B+

Charlie’s Angels ? B+

The Legend of

Drunken Master ? B+

Lucky Numbers ? D-

Remember the Titans ? D

Almost Famous ? A

The Crew ? D

The 6th Day ? C+

The Tao of Steve ? B+

Meet the Parents ? B+