My anaconda don’t….
I remember this was the first movie I saw Jennifer Lopez act in. I remember thinking that she did rather well in it. I still do. I don’t know if you could call it a “B” movie since the budget was $45,000,000. Which is not bad. Although it is far from a box office biggie it still has a place in the Creature Feature Horror movie hall of fame.
Jon Voight, who plays slimy sick Paul Serone, a poacher with a Captain Ahab complex, is the only real veteran actor, although Jonathan Hyde and Eric Stoltz had been around awhile. Ice Cube and Owen Wilson were veritable newbies at that time.
The plot entails a film crew on the Amazon doing a documentary. They run into Voight who ultimately high jacks the boat and forces the film crew to help him search for the legendary giant anaconda. This is when things start to get interesting. Although well done, the movie slows down in many spots. The main action is whenever a snake either eats someone or throws them up.
The special effects are real good in some spots and not so good in others. Some were CGI and some were puppets. Since this is when CGI is in it’s infancy that can be forgiven. After all we still have a giant bulimic snake with really bad table manners. And yes, I saw the backwards flowing waterfall and yes, I also saw the wink. For a movie made in 1997 it holds up as well as can be expected and it does have what every horror/creature feature should have. A really big monster.