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.
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SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain22 January 2012
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Let me tell you about a little film called Anaconda.
I watched this film a dozen times as a kid, I loved monster flicks. Anaconda was bad, it was utterly bad, yet I've seen it more times than I want to admit. Now we visit it again, years later, so we can laugh at how ridiculous this film is.
We open with Danny Trejo, for some reason they dubbed his lines. He doesn't speak English, but the voice the use is so much higher than what we all know to be the gravel voice of Trejo. Just something that I found funny.
The monster effects are laughably bad at times and worse at others. When the snake is animatronic, the obviousness of it all makes it seems like a bad ride at universal. Then we have the CGI effects, which make the snake seem like it doesn't even belong on the screen. The first attack on a human, the entire thing looks like one giant blur. The first time we see the snake in general isn't with some Jaws like reveal, it's simply the thing slithering around in the jungle before it attacks a puma. No big reveal, no slow reveal...just the damn snake out in the open.
In Ebert's review of the film, which is enthusiastically gave a thumbs up, he claims Jon Voight delivers a brave and slimy performance. That I can agree with, but I wouldn't necessarily call it a great performance. It's without a doubt, memorable, but in the campy way. He glares at almost everyone on the screen, his skin is slimy like a snake and immediately untrustworthy. No one else seems to think they are in a bad movie here. Voight seems to know this from the get go. Watch this film and then watch The Room and tell me the performances from them are not almost identical. Is he doing DeNiro? Is he doing Brando? Who the hell knows. It's one wacky performance, that much is a guarantee.
This was one of the early Jennifer Lopez films that probably helped launch her career. Why? I don't know, she doesn't offer anything interesting here. Ice Cube and Owen Wilson play against their usual type, I don't think we've seen either of them in a monster flick since this one,
Suffice to say, Anaconda is a bad film that boarders on being highly enjoyable. Sit back, laugh and enjoy the absurdity of Anaconda. If you take this film seriously...at all, even for one second, then you will utterly hate it. -
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. -
CinemaClown23 September 2016A guilty pleasure that's still fun & amusing, Anaconda was one of those famous B-movies that used to air a lot on TV when I was a kid and whenever I caught a glimpse of it while switching channels, I'd usually end up staying till the end. Creature feature was my go-to genre while growing up and this, along with Jurassic Park & Godzilla, were amongst my favorites.
Looking back today, it is difficult to ignore the multitudes of issues that plague this flick but back then, things like direction, screenplay, acting, plot structure, character arcs or themes etc didn't mean a thing to me. The only stuff that mattered was whether I'll be entertained or not. It was the only factor that decided the fate of any movie in my book. And in many ways, it still does.
Set in the Amazon jungles, the story of Anaconda follows a documentary film crew that comes across a stranded snake hunter and allow him to get on board. The atmosphere changes soon as the crew finds itself uncomfortable around the new guy who, after a series of tragedies, takes command of the boat & the crew and makes them help him in his quest to capture the world's largest & deadliest snake.
Directed by Luis Llosa, the first act is dull and it is only after the titular serpent surfaces that things get interesting. The script serves the bare serviceable minimum for a horror flick, dialogues are corny, characters are bland but its skillful camera-work & clever angles, in addition to its isolated setting, help in retaining an aura of suspense and is effective in bits n pieces.
The visual effects appear dated but it's still impressive in a few places. Everything about the anaconda is exaggerated to ridiculous proportions yet it adds to the fun & its campy tone. The film features a number of people who later went on to make a name for themselves in the Hollywood industry but it's Jon Voight who steals the show with his crazy, sinister & over-the-top rendition of the snake hunter.
On an overall scale, Anaconda exhibits all the ingredients that are responsible for bringing a film down yet it manages to stay afloat for the majority of its runtime. There are a few hiccups along the way but the ride is enjoyable for the most part and in the end, it is more satisfying & entertaining than other similar examples. An adventure that's not devoid of thrills & a horror that packs some good chills, Anaconda is well-deserving of its cult status. Worth a shot. -
hitchcockthelegend2 October 2009A documentary crew are travelling down the Amazon to hopefully film a mystical tribe. On the way they rescue a stranded man, unaware of the trouble that his being on board will bring. As they get deeper down river his ulterior motives surface, he's a snake trapper and has his heart set on capturing a giant Anaconda snake. A beast that can grow up to 40 feet long.
Ah, creaky creature features, how I love them. Days of old when budgets were minimal and the makers of such pictures just wanted to entertain and hopefully give the discerning viewers a jolt or two, and yes, with the odd giggle thrown in on purpose. Enter the modern day creature feature, where budgets have considerably improved along with the advent of special effects. Where does this leave Anaconda you ask? Is it a modern day homage to the "good old days," or is it a genuine attempt at making a horror film for the modern audience? How you answer that will probably determine how, or if, you enjoy the film.
The cast list suggests that the makers thought they were making a great movie, while some of the attempts at a serious performance also lend weight to that theory. John Voight on the other hand clearly knew what was needed and gives a sneering, leering ham sandwich performance befitting those creakers from days of yore. If only the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Eric Stoltz, Owen Wilson and Kari Wuhrer had followed suit, we may have been sitting here with a creature feature to rank alongside the marvellous Tremors, or at the least an equal to the funny Arachnophobia.
It's not a desperately bad film by any stretch of the imagination. It's fun playing the "guess which name actor is going to be snake food next" and "who will survive come the end" While iffy effects aren't really an issue, hey this is a film with gigantic animatronic snakes in it! And for sure some scenes are pure horror hokum delight, watch out for a John Voight wink scene, it's Z movie legend now. But it's neither homage or good horror fodder. Enjoyable enough as an appetiser to far better genre pieces, but ultimately it's very forgettable. 5/10 -
ccthemovieman-120 June 2006Except for Jon Voight's character, I didn't find any of the actors/characters in this film likable, just annoying. Voight was hardly a role model, either. I wound up rooting for the anaconda. Ice Cube, Jonathan Hyde, Jennifer Lopez...all playing people with chips on their shoulders. Sorry, but rappers with attitudes or snobby Englishmen aren't entertaining to me.
In here, too, is the all-too-familiar cheap shot against Christians in which they show the worst, most despicable person in the story and then zoom in several times to show you the cross that sleazebag is wearing. They always want to make that association and they make it obvious every time.
What makes the movie tolerable at all is the great Brazlian swamp scenery and good special effects with the giant snake. Yeah, sometimes the snake scenes look a bit computer-generated but more than not, they are just plain scary. A few of them are downright jaw-dropping as when it flies through the air, swallows human beings or swims while on fire. This is nice on DVD with rich visuals and very good surround sound.
If only the people in the movie were half as good as the scenery. -
snakeguy7626 October 2005Erik Stolz must have owed someone a favor. But he was lucky; he was unconscious for most of the movie. I wish I was! The scene that made me cringe the most was the "snake fishing" scene where Jon Voigt has the "Jaws" moment. I know it was put in on purpose but it just comes off stupid.
And it doesn't matter too much that there was a lot of snake fact errors (like the speedy snake chase - you can walk faster than any anaconda can slither). Jaws had it share if inaccuracies but it was still a gripping movie.
This movie just fell into the big monster is chased by the hunter. Throw in a little J-Lo to spice it up.
Note to IMDb - the sequel took place in Borneo not the first one. And the cat in the opening scene was a black jaguar, not a tiger. -
rivertam266 February 2020Anaconda is often looked at as cinematic trash. And it is but it's also wonderfully entertaining. Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Eric Stoltz, Kari Wuhrer, Owen Wilson and Jon Voight star. Jennifer Lopez is really fierce as the lead and Jon Voight is so bonkers and over the top it's just comically absurd and wonderful. The effects leave something to be desired. The digital doesn't hold up but the practical is still pretty cool. The movie is creepy and funny and it's opening kill features a somewhat young I think Danny Trejo. Sometimes you just need to trash it up.
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Coventry18 February 2007It's pretty damn difficult to impress even the most enthusiast and undemanding horror audiences with a 40 ft. long animatronic snake that apart from looking silly also screams at its victims. And yet, strangely enough, the CGI effects & visuals are actually the most pleasing aspects to endure whilst watching "Anaconda". The hopelessly muddled script and the awful performances (coming from a prominent ensemble cast, I may add) form the real disaster here. This could have been a pretty cool big animal creature-feature IF ONLY the creators tried a to make it look less like big-budgeted studio blockbuster and more like an unpretentious and cheesy B-movie! Jon Voight surely seemed to think he was involved in such a production, as his performance is permanently over-the-top and almost deliberately bad. Voight blinks ridiculously all the time and talks in an unidentifiable accent, while the rest of the cast attempts to speak their lines straight-faced and plausible. It's almost pitiful to behold. A seven-headed film crew sails down the mighty Amazon river, hoping to shoot a breakthrough documentary about a nearly extinct tribe of natives. Instead of primitive savages, they encounter a stranded adventurer who claims to know all the dangers of the Amazon jungle and offers to be their guide. Patiently and strategically, he (Paul Sarone) directs the crew towards the territory of the horrific man-eating anaconda. After (far too) many lame and predictable false alarm sequences, the big computer-engineered snake finally begins to reduce the number of passengers on the boat. The grotesque action sequences are okay, I guess, but the interactions between the stereotypical characters are totally unbelievable. Eric Stolz (as the expedition's leader) lies unconscious most of the time, Ice Cube stares at the animals in the jungle as they were his gangster enemies from the ghetto, Owen Wilson looks like he wants to ride the anaconda as it was a rodeo-bull and worst of all Jonathan Hyde plays the obnoxious British chap who even carries on golfing after several people have died. As strange as it sounds, Jennifer Lopez honestly plays the most convincing character and gives away the best performance. The plot meanders needlessly and contains several situations that are stupid and inexplicable, like unnatural barricades in the middle of the godforsaken jungle and dynamite-induced snake showers. Luis Llosa's direction is uninspired but at least Bill Butler's camera captures some enchanting images of the South American jungles. Despite having appeared in over 40 movies already, Danny Trejo's role is just a miserable cameo.
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This stirring picture concerns about a documentary film crew from National Geographic constituted by a motley group: Jennifer Lopez Ice Cube, Eric Stolz, Jonathan Hyde, Owen Wilson, Kari Wuhrer traveling the Amazon river looking for a legendary Indian tribe and guided by Jon Voigh, playing a nutty, snake-obsessed hunter.But a great creature terrorizing the river, it turns to be a very large Anaconda with more 50-foot long. Meanwhile the bunch relationship each other till appearance the enormous snake. A poisonous and giant snake,attack at random and slither down the river, forest, jungle and slither around the boat ready to attack anyone on its path.
The picture provides stirring and exciting amusement with hair-raising chills and creepy scares. The Anacandas, themselves , of course, are the real star stars and they are astounding terrifyingly and almost totally convincing.The snakes are made by animatronics and computer generator, as usual. Middling performances though the players reacting appropriately to becoming snake food. Rather sympathetic and exaggerated acting by Jon Voight as crazy and nasty snakes hunter. The picture displays atmospheric music score by Randy Edelman and colorful cinematography by Bill Butler, cameraman of ¨Jaws¨film. The movie is professionally directed by Luis Llosa, an expert action movies director (The sniper, The specialist) and habitual shooting on river Amazonas(Fire on the Amazon, eight hundred leagues down the Amazon). It's followed by inferior sequel : The hunt for the blood orchid(2004) by Dwight H. Little and created an authentic exploitation snakes sub-genre, such as : ¨Python I and II, Boa, Rattler, King Cobra , among others. -
Matrixgirl04K104 November 2001Now, I am a snake lover. I love snakes of all kinds, even when they are in my house. It pains me to kill them or see them killed. And when I heard this movie would be out, I thought "Uh oh." But I watched it anyway. Please beat me. Allow me to point out everything that went wrong with this tripe. And these are spoilers, by the way.
1) Anacondas have never gotten any bigger than 40 feet on record. How big was this one?
2) An anaconda is a very muscular predator. It can kill a crocodile by SUFFOCATION NOT BONE CRUSHING. Any snake, as a matter of fact, does not have the power to crush bones or pop veins. They just don't. They just suffocate their prey by compressing their lungs and windpipe.
3) Although they are very stong, it is impossible for the snake to pick up a human being, lift it up, and swallow it upright. They can't. It has to do with physics and biology.
4) It takes a snake a very long time to swallow its dinner. It can take up to an hour for it to swallow a crocodile. And that means that it would take nearly 3/4 of an hour to swallow these people. If it felt compelled to go after them, first of all.
5) A SNAKE IS NOT A FISH. It cannot stay under water for that long, and it does not go after the smell of blood. A snake hunts by sight and the smell of the animal. They made this snake out to be a shark. And even if they did go after blood, that monkey was dead. They go after movement.
6) A snake will vomit its food if it feels threatened. It serves a confusion tactic for enemies. Did this snake feel threatened? No. And when they do vomit, it does not fly out like that guy did.
7) Do you know how long it takes a snake to digest a meal? When a python eats a boar, it goes without food for almost a year. That means that that anaconda would be pretty well-fed after the first victim.
8) An anaconda does not kill for the fun of it. They leave that to humans.
9) An anaconda will not let go of its current prey, which is still alive, and go after something dead. They know better.
10) An anaconda can climb trees and move very quickly. They do not fly up pipes.
11) And, lastly, an anaconda is not invincible. I think shooting it in the head will do it in. You will not need to torch it and take a pick-axe to its head.
This was tripe, as I said before. Do not watch this. Just to tell you how bad it is, I think that it was pretty worthy of the MST3K bunch. -
ThomDerd9 August 2020If you want to watch a movie on a blazing, hot evening and have no options (and missed this one back in the day), then this is going to entertain you. Action? Yes. Fun? Yes. Acting? Oh hell yes! Just pay attention to Jon Voight and his over-the-top performance and prepare to be amazed. On top of that, one thing to consider: the writing for J-Lo's character, her lines, are totally out there making her sound useless and fragile, helpless side-hero for at least 45 minutes. Luckily this will change slightly towards the 2nd half, but...really, Mr Writer? Good thing that the anaconda steals the show. Finally, the overall rating here is unfair. This should be around 6.5 and is a much better monster-munch film than many others in the 00's and 10's...8/10, pure fun.
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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. -
zardoz-1311 September 2013Watching "Anaconda is like plastering the palm of your hand against a clear glass jar that contains a rattlesnake and then gambling that you won't flinch when the snake strikes at the glass from within the container. More than half of the audience with whom I sat lost this wager every time that the eponymous snake struck. The ghoulish, B-movie plot of "Anaconda" resembles a blueprint for a theme park cruise. Scenarists Hans Bauer, Jim Cash, and Jack Epps, Jr., have borrowed surefire elements and incidents from better movies, such as "Moby Dick" (1956), "Creature from the Black Lagoon" (1954), and "Jaws" (1975). Sadly, although it is entertaining in an idiotic kind of way, "Anaconda" never seems to enthrall its audience because its campy sense of unreality undercuts its chills.
The premise has something to do with journalists on an expedition heading down the Amazon in search of a lost South American tribe of Indians. Expedition leader Dr. Steven Cale (Eric Stoltz of "Killing Zoe") picks up a shipwrecked survivor, Paul Sarone (Jon Voight of "Midnight Cowboy"), along the way, but nothing good comes from this act of kindness. Voight turns in a heavily accented performance as an incredibly slimy villain. He is cast as a sinister ex-priest who resembles the feisty Quint (Robert Shaw) in "Jaws." Sarone is as obsessed with bagging giant killer snake as Ahab (Gregory Peck) was with catching a great white whale in "Moby Dick." Sarone is perfectly willing to use his new friends as bait if necessary to trap his 40-foot snake.
A freak underwater accident early on puts Dr. Cale out of commission. It seems that when he dove in to fix a stuck propeller, a poisonous fish swam into his mouth and stung him. Sarone convinces the expedition film director, Terri Flores (Jennifer Lopez of "Selena") that he knows a short-cut down a blocked tributary that will cut 50 miles off their trip and save Cale's life. Foolishly, Terri believes Sarone and off they steam literally into the jaws of death. Director Louis Llosa and his scribes really heat up the suspense when Sarone commandeers the boat. Our heroes are cut off now in the untamed jungles of South America, and their radio has crapped out on them. They are without help and completely at the Sarone's mercy. Furthermore, during a big snake attack, the reptile knocks most of their fuel overboard so they have to prowl deeper into snake country to find more fuel.
Standing out among the trendy-looking cast for his resilience is rapper Ice Cube from "Boyz N the Hood." He plays a tough, resourceful, film photographer who joins forces with Terri to thwart Sarone. The rest of the expedition crew are largely victims biding their time until they are eaten.
If you don't know an animatronic snake from the real McCoy, or if you think this super anaconda could outrun the Road Runner, you're in for a nightmare experience. Every time this fake anaconda struck, most of the audience with which I sat went berserk. This big mother of a snake slings its coils like so many lariats around its prey. No matter if they're scrambling for a ladder or jogging through the jungle, this lethal anaconda hits them like a twister, wraps around them, and then chomps down on their heads. A pretty sight it is not. Meanwhile, the audiences sheds its collective skin. Maybe it wasn't as terrifying as "Alien," but then my audience wouldn't have known the difference. What really matters in "Anaconda" is who will the big, bad snake devour next? And how will our heroes destroy it? Director Louis Llosa, whose helmed better movies such as "The Specialist" and "Sniper," exploits the colorful Amazonian flora and fauna as does the snake. Sure, there are the inevitable anaconda cam shots and for the artistically inclined, Llosa provides a grotesque point of view shot. We get to see what it looks like staring down inside of the python's gullet as it digest another victim.
Llosa paces "Anaconda" like a jack-in-the-box. He cranks up the tension between attacks. Just before his audiences has recovered, he unleashes another attack. And be warned, nothing can stop this anaconda. It can smash through windows, shatter boat hulls, and has special sensing ability that attracts it to its prey. This anaconda also shrieks like a cat when it gets hooked.
As horror movies go, "Anaconda" is a straightforward, gut and churn classic. Not classic in the sense that it represents superior entertainment. Instead, classic in the sense that it egregious. The only moment in the entire film when the movie makers reach too far is Voight's tacky winking scene. This scene is so hideous that you either howl or hurl. Llosa succeeds in frightening the frijoles out of his audiences with unsavory material. Nothing wrong with that. Any movie that provokes a response is worth watching at least once. The closet that the filmmakers come to sexual encounters is a quickie on the bank that the snake hisses at, and Lopez's wet T-shirt.
Despite its glossy, big-budgeted production values, "Anaconda" ends up as such a flaky carnival of outlandish special effects and unrealistic antics that you want to snicker when you should scream and scream when you should snicker. -
likeitorloatheit12 April 2001This is not as bad as some people say it is. Generally, it's pretty formulaic, but there are a few alterations on the monster movie format.
A crew making a documentary set sail down a tropical river, on their way losing their fuel and, you guessed it, bumping into a big snake. There are all the usual characters here: beautiful girl, villain, posh English bloke (there's always one!), working-class hero, etc. They gradually get picked off one-by-one - although guessing the next "victim" is so easy, it takes the fun out of it all.
There are a few oddities in the consistency of the plot. Most of the killing happen in the second half of the film with the first half devoted to boring sub-plots. Curiously, the customary "introduction shock" is not a snake death, but a suicide. We never really find out why this has happened - after all, there is still a lot of Jennifer Lopez to be shown - and this, I think, is one of the main problems with the film. Story lines are attempted but never completed and so the audience will never gain true satisfaction from the film.
Another interesting factor is Terri's boyfriend and his contribution to the story line. During a dive, he gets bitten and the crew manage to recover him. They save his life but he is still unconscious and remains so throughout most of the movie.
However, the weakest character of all is the snake. Sure, it's pretty ugly, but it will never be truly terrifying as the director doesn't play on our sense of fear. We may be surprised when the snake attacks but never truly shocked.
As I said before, this isn't too bad a movie (I've seen worse) - there are some moments of tension, the actors do their jobs and the special effects are far from laughable. You might want to watch this if it's shown of TV, but I wouldn't pay money to see it. -
Sjhm25 March 2007I must admit to feeling somewhat irritated by the people who take this film out of context. It isn't Shakespeare. It's a B Movie. And as such, it isn't a bad entry in the lists. B Movies are not about getting every little detail right, so the snake moves at a speed which isn't "snakely" possible, and you know that most of the cast are going to get squished, munched and swallowed.
I enjoyed this movie, simply because I accept it as a brain into neutral, kick back on the sofa, pizza dinner special and not Titus Andronicus. J Lo for once is relatively restrained, and the rest of the cast unremarkable, properly taking second place to a very angry snake, who squishes, munches and swallows with considerable gusto. B Movie fun night in sharing a pizza with friends! -
FlashCallahan13 September 2013A National Geographic crew head down the Amazon in a boat to make a documentary on a long-lost tribe of natives.
On the way, they rescue a hunter from his sinking boat and take him on board. After the ship's captain is attacked by a poisonous insect and goes comatose, the hunter commandeers the boat.
taking the crew hostage, he makes them go along on his insane quest to capture a giant anaconda.....
First things first, the film is awful, its all over the shop and there has to be some of the most over the top acting I've ever seen in a movie. Saying that, I had a blast from beginning to end.
Any film that can dub Trejos voice and kill him off in literally the first two minutes, has to be seen. The rest of the film is owned by Voight and a really dodgy looking reptile. Considering this is four years after Jurassic Park, and they spent a hundred grand every second that beast was on screen, its pretty laughable.
The rest of the cast are there for filler. Lopez is good, Ice Cube is just a happier Doughboy, Wilson getting into Hollywood big time, and Jonathan Hyde as the token British snob, which is xenophobia if I've ever seen it.
But there is so much fun to be had, guessing who will die first, the amount of times Voights accent changes thought the film, and obviously how much better Lopezs' nose looks today.
But it is a bad film, and although I had lots of fun watching it, I cannot justify giving it a high rating.
But its the best movie ever made where Eric Stoltz is asleep for 80% of the running time. -
A rapper and a singer who think they can act and/or have any business acting join forces with several actors and a comedian and face a large snake. The film was put together for the sole purpose of putting said snake, the type of which is in the very title, on the screen, the justification for such is not... present, and the main reason for choosing to do such a film seems to be the fact that the effects could be achieved in 1997(and, looking back, heck, maybe even looking at it back then, the might have benefited from waiting some). Not all the effects are bad, though. The acting is largely poor. Voight sounds like Jean-Claude Van Damme, and at one point, he even pulls off a move that would have fit more if done by said "actor". More or less everyone else is negligible. The writing is set up to make sure the snake can appear. The technical aspects aren't horrible, they're just not particularly impressive. Editing, camera-work and all is flat and uninspired. I suppose some males may be attracted to Lopez and Wuhrer. I'm not sure there particularly is anything for women in this, but hey, if you're a female and you dig the film, that's fine. This is essentially creature-horror for fans of B-movie cinema. I'm not sure anyone else will find anything particularly spell-binding herein. I recommend this to those who fall into the former group. Those wanting a proper portrayal of the reptile, as well as anyone expecting a solid performance from even the most dependable of the actors may want to consider if they wouldn't be better off skipping this one. 5/10
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RElKO25 July 2000There 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. -
Colbridge27 November 2023This wants to be Jaws (1975) in style and tension but falls woefully short due to the dumb script, inept direction and inconsistent blending of poor CGI and physical effects of the anaconda that never quite convinces. The opening scene with Danny Trejo is promising but as he gets dispensed with early on it's all downhill from there.
Director Luis Llosa is no Spielberg however Anaconda does have it's moments of gore and thrills which moves at a fast pace but Llosa fails to build adequate tension and characterisation for this to work as well as it could have. Jon Voight seems to be relishing his role as the unscrupulous hunter bent on capturing the largest snake in the Amazon with his over the top performance but because of the lack of characterisation we don't really care who gets bitten, crushed or eaten alive despite an appealing cast of now well known actors Owen Wilson, Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube and Eric Stoltz.
That said it's a fun, action packed monster B-movie that doesn't take itself too seriously with hokey effects and stereotypical characters being part of it's charm. A similar creature feature Lake Placid (1999) is done a lot better in my opinion but stays in the realm of the B movie. -
terpfly115 December 2021I read a lot of the review on this 23 year old flick. It's not as bad as people are saying. It is a well made finely acted unbelievable adventure flick. Anyone that expected this to be an Oscar award winning movie are delusional. I mean really, it's Jay Lo, Ice Cube , Voight, and Owen. It's mindless entertainment and nothing else. Enjoy.
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Spleen16 February 2000I wouldn't have wasted my time commenting on this one if it weren't for the people (not just the ones on this site) willing to speak out in its defence. Well, sort of. Instead of a DEFENCE, exactly, you're more likely to hear remarks like, `Of course it's bad - that's why I like it!' (okaaay ...); and, `It's bad, but if you'd had a different upbringing, you would have liked it' ... which can be truly said of every bad film ever made, so it's not saying much.
I'll just concentrate on the long concluding sequence, with snake after snake ... or was it just one snake? This is a film with deathless, invulnerable, heroes and villains, so I'm not entirely convinced that anyone or anything in it was ever killed. But anyway: talk about one-note! The film's `conclusion' was the dramatic equivalent of some guy on a bagpipe droning out a low G for twenty minutes and calling it a tune. Constant screaming, constant movement, constant boredom. Even I, I who loathe computer graphics, especially when they're as bad as this (although there were some animatronic snake effects as well, and these were passable), could not have cared less about the special effects - I was too busy marvelling at the lack of creativity, how the director never once so much as lifted a finger to make his footage suspenseful or moving or fun to watch. Has anyone experienced sleep paralysis? That's what the conclusion of `Anaconda' felt like. I could probably have turned it off during the dull first half, but then sleep paralysis set in and my muscles refused to obey my desires.
That'll teach me to watch something just because it's bad.
Fans of Jennifer Lopez might like looking at her. I didn't. Don't take this the wrong way - I'm sure she's supremely gorgeous in real life, but on screen, or at least on THIS screen, she comes across as the product of the same Hollywood cloning factory that produced - you know - what's her name. -
kosmasp26 July 2020And let's be clear: the movie isn't serious! Take the performance of Jon Voight, who some have compared to different characters portrayed by different other actors, one of them being a Robert De Niro role. One thing everyone agrees on though is that he plays it over the top - as over the top as is possible and maybe even further out there. It fits the whole sentiment of the movie.
Then you have some actors that were not as known back then but at least ring a bell now. Now you could blame this movie to have spawned and birthed a lot of bad imitators (even some sequels that are seen as gross and just plain bad by some). But this put a lot of effort in what it did. Not that it all translates well on screen. The CGI effects look weak to say the least, but not worse than the ones used in part 3&4 which were made over a decade later! The model effects (it is not just CGI as some reviewers would like you to believe here) are quite decent, but as the making of reveals, could have worked better if different animatronics would have been used.
Having said all that, the movie deserves to be just seen as entertainment. Try to enjoy it for what it is. Call it guilty pleasure if it helps - just roll, ride - heck swim with it! It's a freaking Anaconda eating people for crying out loud - what do you expect? It's as good as it gets -
barmybramgaming6 November 2021I watched this as a teenager in the cinema.
Ok so it's a pretty corny script at times but just look at the ensemble of great actors here.
I feel a 4.8 is harsh.
I would give this a 6 but I'm saying 7 just to give it a little boost lol.
If you want to watch some entertaining, slightly OTT horror film, then you'll enjoy this. Just don't expect it to be anything more than it is.
FUN. -
Probably the funniest of the guilty pleasures and bad films most people love, this is admittedly still one of the biggest stinkers of the horror genre, mainly thanks to the silliness and some genuinely wretched acting, particularly by a certain Oscar winner way beyond his sell by date. For Jon Voight, this is his "Valley of the Dolls" and "Mommie Dearest", and unlike Patty Duke and Faye Dunaway, it's obvious that he's enjoying the hideous performance he relishes giving.
If the idea of Charlton Heston playing a Mexican or John Wayne being Mongol gives you a chuckle, just wait until you hear his hideous Spanish accent, a modern day Frito bandito stereotype where you can't believe what you're hearing. Joined by Ice Cube, Jennifer Lopez, Eric Stoltz and Owen Wilson, he's the tour guide for a group of National Geographic filmmakers on the search for a reclusive Amazon native tribe, but they encounter something much more mysterious and far more deadly than even the most ruthless of man eating natives.
It's wild bore for a week's worth of dinners, only fattening up the victims of those who will fall prey to the ugly giant snake, non poisonous but that's not necessarily an easier way to die. This creature (greatly exaggerated for the movie) has a unique way of dealing with its prey, and intended victims, as evidenced at the beginning, would rather commit a quick suicide than the suffering and gross entrance into a tomb of death that sees them quickly pushed out quickly enough for a wink before the final descent.
There are poisonous wasps the size of roaches and other poisonous vipers, brought aboard the ship through an intentional explosion, and at least there's some pretty scenery among the disturbing elements of the film. Performances are a mixed bag with Jennifer Lopez barely able to get a realistic reading of any of her lines and Owen Wilson more out of an overaged surfer dude than a National Geographic reporter. It's fun to laugh at, and each time you watch it, you'll find more chuckles among the film's many absurdities.