ANACONDA
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1997 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: A documentary expedition to the
Amazon picks up a mystery man, little knowing that
he intends to turn the proceedings into a hunting
party for a huge man-eating snake. The plot is
weak, with only one decent character, but it is
tough to make too bad a film with so good a
monster. Rating: 0 (-4 to +4)
When I reviewed RUMBLE IN THE BRONX and said that I did not particularly like the movie, one person wrote me to say that not every film has to be so serious and that Americans make very few "fun" films. That came to me as something of a shocker since I had thought that the majority of feature films made in this country in the 90s were "fun" films, or at least intended that way. I grew up when the 50s science fiction films were hitting television and for me a fun film is something not unlike Jack Arnold's THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. Arnold's Amazon opus is not a good film by any objective standard but is a sort of a dark pleasure. The new ANACONDA is not even enough unlike THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, borrowing a good deal of its plot. For me more pleasure than watching Jackie Chan kick somebody or gliding over them in a hovercraft is seeing a snake the size of a small traffic jam making mincemeat of an expedition to the Amazon. Not that ANACONDA is even a well-made rip-off of CREATURE and it would be more enjoyable with a better script, but it passes as a decent film. It is the sort of film that I peg in the back of my mind as a "drive-in" film, though in my part of the country the last drive-in died several years ago. The script of ANACONDA borrows much of its plot from THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, with a nod or two to MOBY DICK and JAWS. But let us face it, it is fun to see a recreation of a primordial battle between humans and some giant force of nature.
The film opens with some young filmmakers on the Amazon planning to make a documentary about a legendary tribe of people, the People of the Mist. Immediately we know there is trouble brewing since these people would not be safe on the Amazon even if there were no giant snakes around. We have Terri Flores (played by Jennifer Lopez of BLOOD AND WINE and in the title role of SELENA). She is leading the expedition, believe it or not. Her cameraman is Danny (played by Ice Cube). Why do I have the feeling that Ice Cube would last on the Amazon just about as long as an ice cube would last in the Amazon? What passes for adult supervision is Dr. Steven Cale (Eric Stoltz) who seems to know a little of lore of the river, but mostly from books. There are several others, just as hopeless. And as someone who has actually been stranded on the Amazon in an outboard canoe ... without gasoline ... and with an Amazon storm blowing up, I could tell at the beginning that snake or no snake these people are not all coming back. In a nick of time they pick up somebody real who knows the Amazon. Paul Sarone (Jon Voight) is a Paraguayan snake hunter who has some idea about how to handle the river without getting killed. Unfortunately he has a plan of his own. He wants to capture alive a forty-foot anaconda he has reason to believe is living in a little traveled tributary. (Actually for those interested, a forty-foot anaconda is not that much of a stretch. These aquatic boas have been reported to actually reach to lengths of thirty feet and the largest may never have been seen and reported.)
Eric Stoltz is a good actor, but the script does not give him nearly enough to do. He is the logical descendent of the Whit Bissell character in THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. Actually is surprising that with three names credited to the screenplay and at least two more people who worded on the script, there should have been more to the story than a patchwork of other films. But the characters are flat and uninteresting, with one exception. Jon Voight is a terrific actor and his Sarone is what keeps the film watchable between snake attacks. The role is something of a departure for him and the hardened Amazon Paraguayan with the down-turned mouth and the understated manner of talking really is the best thing about ANACONDA. The snake isn't too bad either. The snake is done as a combination of animatronics and digital animation. Somehow the animatronics work better. The film was directed by Luis Llosa who must have been an obvious choice for the producers as his last four films were two action films (SNIPER and THE SPECIALIST) and two documentaries about the Amazon. But Voight was the most solid choice.
I cannot give the film a high rating, but it was watchable and between the snake and Voight's performance I did not feel cheated. I rate it a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
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