Anaconda (1997)

Very well executed

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Anaconda is a wonderful movie. These people travel through the waters of the Amazon Rainforest looking for a tribe to make a documentary about them. They run into a man who they rescue and he turns out to be a maniac who wants to catch an anaconda alive. The movie has great scenes that are very creepy and scary. The big anacondas in this are bigger, faster, and more aggressive than real green anacondas but that was necessary to make a good horror movie. Some of the great scenes are when you see the shape of a man inside a snake that ate him. And when you see a snake swallowing a man from inside the snake. It's as if the camera is inside the snake and you see it's mouth or throat open and the man go inside it. And when a baby anaconda wraps around a mans finger and tries to eat it.

Heading into the Amazon, a documentary team studying a long-lost tribe runs afoul of a hunter searching for a legendary anaconda and are forced to help him track the deadly creature.This was a decent and quite enjoyable creature feature. One of the better features here is the rather impressive pace that runs throughout here, as this one runs along pretty quickly with the introduction getting started immediately, picking up the hunter is right after that and the snake attacks carry the action throughout the rest of the film. Those action scenes are all quite fun, from the opening poacher attack, the search on the abandoned boat and the first battle with the creature as they try to wrangle the water-bound snake from their boat only for the resulting chaos it it's escape to set the stage for its' later scenes. That is the film's best part which is the final half hour as there's a large amount of ambushes and attacks here, from the trap at the waterfall where there's the fun water-chase with the creature coming after the swimmers in the water trying to dislodge the boat before finally getting to the spectacular waterfall confrontation catching the fleeing victim in mid-air before crashing into the boat below to the greater fun of the big chase through the abandoned warehouse. From the hunter's trap and eventual escape to running through the different levels with the creature continually crashing through the surroundings and finally getting rid of the massive snake in a fiery blast, this packs a large amount of action, suspense and rather impressive moments into it. Along with the enjoyable animatronic special effects for the snake, these are more than enough to hold off the few flaws in here. One of the bigger flaws is the fact that the first half here plays off as more of an adventure film about the exploration of the Amazon who stumbles upon a suspicious snake-hunter who alters their course for his own needs. None of this is handled with the sense of urgency in getting the snake out in a film about a giant killer snake as it moves the film along the needles detours simply to get the point across aren't all that tied into the exploits of a creature feature. There's also the films' tendency to go a little overboard with the special effects here as the use of the CGI snake isn't nearly as convincing as the puppets, act way too slick and have very little depth to it as the performed actions during these scenes give away its' origins. It's not enough to hold this one down, but the other problems here is where the flaws are.Rated PG-13: Violence, Graphic Language and some mild animal deaths.

This movie begins with a film crew heading out on a large boat up the Amazon River in search of a lost Indian tribe known in legend as the Shirishamas. Along the way they pick up a man named "Paul Serone" whose boat has broken down and needs assistance. They agree to take him with them and are delighted when he tells them that he has actually seen the Shirishamas and he then proceeds to give them directions to their village. Unfortunately, the directions he gives them turn out to be somewhat misleading and it's then that they realize that he has a hidden agenda which almost immediately imperils all of them. Now as far as this movie is concerned I have mixed feelings about it. I liked the scenery and the presence of Jennifer Lopez who was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actress. On the other hand I didn't care so much for the second-rate Al Pacino impression of Scarface given by Jon Voight. Apparently, I am not the only one who was less-than-impressed as he was nominated for a Golden Razeberry Award as Worst Actor. Deservedly so. Be that as it may this wasn't necessarily a total waste of time and as a result I have rated it as just slightly below average.

This underrated monster movie came out around the same time as THE RELIC and both films got poor reviews. I happened to see this at the cinema back in '97 and I remember being distinctly underwhelmed by the film. After catching it on television again last night, my opinion has radically changed. While it may be a cheesy film with bad acting and poor special effects, the makers of this film obviously have an affection for B movies and, as one reviewer on the IMDb noted, there is definitely an old-fashioned feel to it, it's a bit like a '50s giant monster movie updated to the present day. On retrospect, I enjoyed this far more than the disappointing and hugely generic film that was THE RELIC, and after watching many of the recent so-called "horror" films on release, I've come to appreciate this for what it is : a fun, shallow and fast-paced little film that delivers the goods on the gore front.While it's not a particularly bloody film, many of the deaths by snake are gooey and gruesome in the extreme. We watch the victims as they get slowly crushed and their bones break out, and then watch as their blubbery bodies are digested by the snake. In the film's big moment, Jon Voight is eaten, only to be regurgitated as a half-eaten mess moments later. Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, his corpse winks! The plot is a typically contrived and generic one, but as I mentioned it's fast paced so you don't have time to dwell on the holes. The acting is pretty bad, but again that's typical for a film of this variety - what's not typical is that most of the actors here are famous, or have become famous since. Jennifer Lopez takes the lead and frankly I can't see what all the fuss is about, to me she's unattractive and a bad actress to boot. Joining her are Eric Stoltz in a nothing role, and he spends most of the film in a coma after eating a deadly wasp (strangely, though, he doesn't die!). Ice Cube is the likable, gruff and unlikely hero, a feat he pulled off again in '99s THREE KINGS. Jonathan Hyde plays an Englishman in a role that borders on the offensively stereotypical - if we British aren't depicted as bad guys, then must we all have stupid accents and be figures of ridicule with our silly "stiff upper lip" type characters? Bad acting awards go to Jon Voight for his supremely hammy portrayal of the film's villain, a lip-curling, eye-winking performance which I found to be hilarious - he's great, having a laugh, and miles away from the boringly serious characters he played in films like Deliverance. A pre-stardom Owen Wilson is pretty bland, and Kari Wuhrer is all glamour and no intelligence. Eagle-eyed viewers may spot FROM DUSK TILL DAWN's vampire bartender Danny Trejo as a snake victim whose suicide kicks the film off.Now, for the special effects, which are a mixture of CGI and animatronics. The animatronics are great, and very lifelike. The CGI is not so, but at least it looks pretty as we watch the snake swirl through the air and stuff. I've seen a lot worse in more recent films, and at least you can see the effort that's gone into this creation to try and make it look as spectacular as possible. Speaking of spectacular, there is the requisite explosive finale which manages to be quite exciting as things go. ANACONDA is, to me, a welcome monster movie from a time when most horror films were slashers squarely aimed at a teenage audience. Thankfully, this film has no teenagers and no masked killers. That, the fun monster and the change of location (an authentic-looking Amazon jungle) make this one to watch again and again for me.