Anaconda (1997) Reviews

• Anaconda (1997)

  SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain2012-01-22

  It's a stupid B-Movie with enough quality to fly by, and enough camp charm to get away with such cinematic crimes. The cast play it straight, apart from Voight. I'm pretty sure he was drunk during the shooting, coming out with an inexplicable accent and a look reminiscent of Hannibal Lecter. It's ridiculous fun, with hokey CGI and animatronics. The animatronics are great and make me miss the 90s. It's a big snake shaped tube and goes from slow robotic motions, to super fast CGI. Cube and Hyde manage some, at times, adorable dialogue. Voight's presence also unites the rest of the cast, and each character gets their own heroic captain moment. Fun filled and just plain bad. I loved it.

• An entertaining creature feature

  kannibalcorpsegrinder2015-06-15

  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.

• Simply dumb fun, as only 1997 could have delivered.

  Mr_Censored2009-07-29

  Before there was "Snakes on a Plane," there was "Anaconda," a Hollywood B-movie from the late 90's that is as notorious for its mixed bag of actors as it is for the gruesome snakes that populate its plot. In the film, a group of documentary film-makers traveling through the Amazon jungle picks up a mysterious man who inadvertently becomes their tour-guide on an unexpected detour. It seems the man is totally crazy and intends to capture one of the Amazon's most notorious and deadliest inhabitants: The Anaconda. Despite some bad looking CGI-snakes (not bad in a good way) and a horribly mis-matched cast (J-Lo and Eric Stolz? Really?) "Anaconda" is simply a good, dumb time. Without a doubt, it's an utterly ridiculous film that can be insulting to your intelligence, but thankfully it knows not to overstay its welcome and the 90 minutes it takes up makes for a harmless and amusing ride. Ice Cube plays Ice Cube as he always does, while J-Lo turns in one of her more likable roles. You'll also catch Owen Wilson in one of his earliest roles, and John Voight is a pleasure to watch as he eats up the scenery. But face it, this movie is about snakes, and the titular character is the true star here. Surely, the actors on hand have done much worse, and as far as horror/b-movies about snakes, you could pick up much worse yourself. If you enjoy watching giant snakes (who inexplicably scream) stalk rappers, pop-stars and Angelina Jolie's dad, this is the flick for you. Those seeking genuine thrills, however, may find the film coming up a bit short.

• Brilliant Saturday Matinee Classic

  squill2000-02-07

  Growing up in the 50's gave me the privilege of being one the last generations of filmgoers to enjoy the Saturday afternoon double-feature matinee experience at the neighborhood theatre. These double-features were primarily low budget sci-fi/horror epics with slender threads of plot, lovely damsels in distress (Beverly Garland, Barbara Rush), square-jawed heroes (Peter Graves, Richard Carlson) and budget monsters from Mars, the grave, melted icebergs, mad scientist's labs or atomic fallout. Well not really. The monsters were usually guys in rubber suits (Creature From The Black Lagoon, This Island Earth), or cheap trick photography (Tarantula, Attack of the 50 Ft Woman), or `Mask and Glove' illusions (I Was A Teenage Werewolf/Frankenstein, Monster On The Campus), or, if we were really lucky, a Ray Harryhausen stop motion creation. Needless to say this wasn't great cinema, but what it WAS, was great fun. Were you scared? Not really. Did you have the need for everything to be fact-based and believable? Of course not! You went to be entertained, to let your imagination merge with the sounds and images and have a good time, laughing or screaming. Could anyone really take the monster from `It Conquered The World' seriously, or wonder whether `The Creature From The Black Lagoon' was biologically possible or if it could anatomically deflower Julie Adams? Didn't matter. Instead, you let yourself meld into the film's world and travel along for the ride. Thus whether you were on the obviously and badly animated `Angry Red Planet', or trapped with James Best on the island of dogs in make-up which were trying to pass for `The Killer Shrews', you surrendered to the magic. My heart weeps for the post `Star Wars' filmgoers, these people weaned on special effects, the MTVers and video viewers who've had their imaginations and attention spans kidnapped and are told what to see and how to interpret it. I truly am sorry. You people missed a modern day, Grade B double feature, sci-fi/horror classic called `Anaconda'. And we hadn't seen one this good since `Alien'. Being an intelligent man, I realize the futility of convincing the non-believers who can't draw from the needed background reservoir to understand, so I won't bother preaching this film's virtues or try to win you over by fact and argument. This, however, is what I will say……… This is a brilliant re-creation of the lost art of the 1950's double-feature horror genre; not really a homage to, more the real thing. It's `Creature From The Black Lagoon', with a really cheesy computer animated snake in place of a guy in a really cheesy rubber suit. It's a Saturday afternoon classic for people who remember and understand them. Story is great, script is great, cinematography is great, direction is great, acting is great, the women beautiful and endangered, the heroes machismo and handsome, the monster phantasmagorical, and we get a bonus surprise by one of the greatest American actors, Jon Voight, doing a magnificent over-the-top, slimy, nasty, reprehensibly heartless villain, complete with a sly wink to the audience. His performance is the key to the film. He understood the film's intent and translated it to the screen for you. If it's in your realm of understanding and experience, you get it and are able to partake in this little slice of cinema heaven. In 20 years, they'll be calling this a classic. I'm calling it one now.

• Two ways of judging this movie.

  RElKO2000-07-25

  There are two ways to see this film and rate it. 1: As a movie that turned out to be much worse than it intended to be. In which case it's obvious that an actor like Jon Voight would overact to try and make it look like it was intended to be "bad". The special f/x, intended or not, are done with computer animation and are, in that category, the worst i've seen yet. A snake that moves like a cartoon. If it was the movieproducers' intention to make a "bad" movie, they would have done better to use the old fashioned special f/x, with a rubber prop. 2:As a movie that was, indeed, intended to be a b-movie. However, since the director Luis Llosa previously only made "serious" action movies like "the Specialist" and "Sniper", i have to seriously doubt it was his intension to make a "tongue-in-cheek" movie. If it WAS his intention, he nearly succeeded in making a fun "bad" movie. Personally, there were only two things in this movie i enjoyed: The voluptuous Jennifer Lopez, and the magnificently "bad" performance of Jon Voight, who with just the facial expressions brings a smile to your face.