(1997)
2.5
Karl Williams
A triple helping of cinematic cheese is what this delightfully tongue-in-cheek horror outing sets out to be and it succeeds handsomely. Among the film's many delights are laughable dialogue, characters out of the Aaron Spelling school of drama, and the frequent usage of the sudden, cheap shock school of thrills (so many objects leap out at viewers unexpectedly, one would think the picture was filmed in 3D). All of these elements keep the film's energy up as the body count predictably mounts, but the best parts of this opus of B-movie cliché and blunder are the snake and actor Jon Voight in the heavy role. The anaconda itself is a supernaturally gifted critter with the ability to swallow a man whole, yet still maintain the fitness to move at the speed of lightning. Stalking its prey, the titular zoological specimen pinwheels back and forth in looks from a computer-generated Loch Ness Monster-looking beastie to a Muppet-style length of what seems to be stuffed elephant trunk. Any zoo in the world would be lucky to have it. Then there's Voight in a winking, ironically detached performance as a Great White Hunter with a marble-mouthed accent. Voight knows how bad the script is here and just sinks his fangs into a juicy, unrepentantly sleazy, horny, greedy character. It's all on the surface, sure, but it's his most fully awake, alive, and energetic performance in decades, sadly spent in the service of a total piece of junk that at least has the good sense to know what it is. Anaconda is trash, but it's darn fun trash.
Anaconda on AllMovie
Anaconda (1997)
