A "National Geographic" crew heads down the Amazon in a jungle boat to make a documentary on a long-lost tribe of natives. En route, 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, takes the crew hostage, and drags them along on his insane quest to capture a giant anaconda. A film crew headed by anthropologist Steve Cale and director Terri Flores journey through a river to find a mysterious Indian tribe and shoot a documentary on them. They save a guy called Paul Sarone from a sinking boat. He offers to help in their search for the tribe, but he is actually a snake-hunter looking for legendary anaconda snake, and when Cale is bitten by some tropical insect, Sarone takes over the boat. Luis Llosa directed this surprise hit that stars Jon Voight as a crazed hunter in the Amazon jungle who tricks a documentary film crew(played by Jennifer Lopez, Eric Stoltz, Ice Cube, Jonathan Hyde, Owen Wilson, & Kari Wuhrer) into helping him track down a mythical giant anaconda snake that proves to be no myth. Eventually taking over the ship, the hunter endangers everyone's life with his pursuit of the creature into its lair, and not all of them will escape with their lives… Jon Voight is so over-the-top here than it becomes quite amusing, though despite this, this otherwise routine and predictable film is an unsuccessful throwback to the "Creature From The Black Lagoon". Still, there was a sequel! Now I don't own a whole lot of movies, but after seeing Anaconda in the theatres I decided to pick up the tape when it came out, and am right now waiting for the DVD to become available as well.<br/><br/>Todays flics are no longer anything special, but now and then one will surprise you. Anaconda is exactly that kind. What started out appearing - to myself - as a low-budget monsta'movie, rapidly became an unforgettable experience with brilliant performances by an excellent cast (of whom I could hardly appreciate a single one before seeing this film) all-round; Voight apparently rising to ethereal levels of acting, in a world where the least bit talent has become scarce indeed.<br/><br/>But that is not the main factor that makes Anaconda engrave itself in your memory. Atmosphere is. The whole setting, ambient sounds, background music, every element of - and changes in - the (imho) perfectly harmonious environment make you feel as if you are actually _there_ on the river.<br/><br/>Granted, one would be quite the fool to believe that there are such intelligent, wickedly scheming, athletic (yes acrobatic even) hard-to-kill snakes out there. But would one not be an even bigger fool not to see through this? I feel the snake just serves the story, which is (** minor spoiler perhaps **) about a group of people who set out to do make a documentary, and a select few others with their own little hidden agenda. The snakes' contribution to the story is practically negligeable (it's probably just there to provide an ending for the movie), hence it does not matter if it is realistic or not.<br/><br/>What is also a really big plus for the story, is the way all its pieces fall into place as its telling progresses. From the first scene right to the final showdown, the keen viewer will notice all kinds of little metaphorical puzzlepieces starting to fit together. Personally, I had to see it twice to understand the bulk of it, and will even today notice small details each time I see it.<br/><br/>I, for one, will be following cast & crew's careers with keen interest.<br/><br/>One thing I do not understand is why "Faces of Death" is in the recommendations for this movie on IMDB.. ?? Although, I couldn't really give you any recommendations either story-wise.. But for the monsta'movie fan: "Phantoms" of course, and "The Relic". Go rent! (Or buy) ;) Charmless, unfrightening, and even devoid of the requisite gratuitous nudity, Anaconda just plain bites.
Clakal replied
293 weeks ago