Anaconda
1997  PG-13  HORROR  1h 29min
CAST— Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Jonathan Hyde, Kari Wuhrer, Owen Wilson, Vincent Castellanos
MUSIC— Ice Cube, Randy Edelman  DIRECTOR— Luis Llosa

     Here’s another creature-feature that gets its inspiration from the 1950s giant-killer-animal-on-the-loose genre, with very little plot other than the obvious. A documentary film crew goes out in search of an elusive Amazonian tribe, only to wind up with a deranged madman onboard bent on capturing a giant anaconda. Predictably, they find the snake (or rather, it finds them) and, after the deaths of many crew members, the survivors have a final showdown with it. That’s about it. With hokey characters and laughable effects (including lame computer animation and— the real laugh— screaming snakes!), Anaconda becomes one of those films that there is every reason to hate, but sometimes you just may be entertained. It’s mindless entertainment in every sense of the phrase. Oh, and by the by, if you think that this one is stupid, WARNING— BEWARE OF THE SEQUEL!
OUR RATING— **
FOLLOWED BY— Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2004), Anaconda 3: Offspring (2008), Anacondas: Trail of Blood (2009), Lake Placid vs. Anaconda (2015)