Film review: 'Anaconda'
It's "don't go near the water" time again with fangs replacing jaws in Sony's "Anaconda", a popcorn/horror munchy about a film crew in the Amazon terrorized by a giant snake.
Likely to wrap up and swallow a sizable chunk of young audience boxoffice, this derivative and sometimes cheeky entertainment may inadvertently tickle the funny bones of adults who've made this genre trek before.
Featuring a melting-pot/cross-demographic ensemble including Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Eric Stoltz and Jon Voight, the real star of this entertainment expedition is, of course, the monstrous, special-effects-created anaconda.
Basically, the judgmental question in this type of curdler is whether the monster is scary and awesome enough to keep audiences clutching and ducking. In this case, yes: The serpent, which seems to be as long as an 18-wheeler and as thick as a set of tractor tires, is fracturingly frightening -- and not just to us types who fear garter snakes.
In this oft-followed story trek, Stoltz stars as Dr. Steven Cale, an anthropologist who has enlisted a camera crew, including fledgling director Terri (Jennifer Lopez), to shoot an ethnography of the Shirishama, an elusive Amazon tribe. So it's up the Amazon in a rattletrap boat -- seemingly left over from "The Heart of Darkness" voyage -- to find the legendary Shirishama.
Following the standard story cadence of monster movies, screenwriters Hans Bauer, Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. fleck the early journey with unsettling, foreboding incidents. These minor sensory frights also include a hellacious storm during which the crew picks up stranded snake poacher Paul Sarone (Voight), whose slithery ways strike fear in their hearts.
Under director Luis Llosa's carefully charted helmsmanship, tension is gradually built and the plot knot tightened: Subjective camera shots, tight shots of the characters and false frights all build to the inevitable entrance of the star, the snake itself. Unfortunately, the dialogue is often redundant and overwritten -- likely to provoke some "hisses" from sophisticated viewers. About the only generic element the scripters have not mixed in is the pooch in jeopardy sequence.
This film is about having a good-time fright, and there's none having more of a good time than Voight, who as the demented and mysterious snake poacher has served up a tongue-in-cheek performance that seems an amalgam of Hannibal Lecter, Ricky Ricardo and William F. Buckley Jr.
Other players fit the bill, including Stoltz as the serious-minded professor, Lopez as the enthusiastic director and Ice Cube as her boyfriend who yearns for the relative safety of South Central L.A.
Technical contributions are tops, primarily cinematographer Bill Butler's frightening and beautiful framings. Special credit to the snake team: Walt Conti and John Nelson.
ANACONDA
Sony Pictures Releasing
Columbia Pictures presents
a film by Luis Llosa
Producers Verna Harrah, Leonard Rabinowitz,
Carole Little
Director Luis Llosa
Screenwriters Hans Bauer, Jim Cash,
Jack Epps Jr.
Director of photography Bill Butler
Production designer Kirk M. Petruccelli
Editor Michael R. Miller
Music Randy Edelman
Co-producer Beau Marks
Visual effects John Nelson
Animatronic effects Walt Conti
Casting Mindy Marin
Color/stereo
Cast:
Terri Flores Jennifer Lopez
Danny Rich Ice Cube
Paul Sarone Jon Voight
Dr. Steven Cale Eric Stoltz
Warren Westridge Jonathan Hyde
Gary Dixon Owen Wilson
Denise Kalberg Kari Wuhrer
Mateo Vincent Castellanos
Poacher Danny Trejo
Running time -- 90 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Likely to wrap up and swallow a sizable chunk of young audience boxoffice, this derivative and sometimes cheeky entertainment may inadvertently tickle the funny bones of adults who've made this genre trek before.
Featuring a melting-pot/cross-demographic ensemble including Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Eric Stoltz and Jon Voight, the real star of this entertainment expedition is, of course, the monstrous, special-effects-created anaconda.
Basically, the judgmental question in this type of curdler is whether the monster is scary and awesome enough to keep audiences clutching and ducking. In this case, yes: The serpent, which seems to be as long as an 18-wheeler and as thick as a set of tractor tires, is fracturingly frightening -- and not just to us types who fear garter snakes.
In this oft-followed story trek, Stoltz stars as Dr. Steven Cale, an anthropologist who has enlisted a camera crew, including fledgling director Terri (Jennifer Lopez), to shoot an ethnography of the Shirishama, an elusive Amazon tribe. So it's up the Amazon in a rattletrap boat -- seemingly left over from "The Heart of Darkness" voyage -- to find the legendary Shirishama.
Following the standard story cadence of monster movies, screenwriters Hans Bauer, Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. fleck the early journey with unsettling, foreboding incidents. These minor sensory frights also include a hellacious storm during which the crew picks up stranded snake poacher Paul Sarone (Voight), whose slithery ways strike fear in their hearts.
Under director Luis Llosa's carefully charted helmsmanship, tension is gradually built and the plot knot tightened: Subjective camera shots, tight shots of the characters and false frights all build to the inevitable entrance of the star, the snake itself. Unfortunately, the dialogue is often redundant and overwritten -- likely to provoke some "hisses" from sophisticated viewers. About the only generic element the scripters have not mixed in is the pooch in jeopardy sequence.
This film is about having a good-time fright, and there's none having more of a good time than Voight, who as the demented and mysterious snake poacher has served up a tongue-in-cheek performance that seems an amalgam of Hannibal Lecter, Ricky Ricardo and William F. Buckley Jr.
Other players fit the bill, including Stoltz as the serious-minded professor, Lopez as the enthusiastic director and Ice Cube as her boyfriend who yearns for the relative safety of South Central L.A.
Technical contributions are tops, primarily cinematographer Bill Butler's frightening and beautiful framings. Special credit to the snake team: Walt Conti and John Nelson.
ANACONDA
Sony Pictures Releasing
Columbia Pictures presents
a film by Luis Llosa
Producers Verna Harrah, Leonard Rabinowitz,
Carole Little
Director Luis Llosa
Screenwriters Hans Bauer, Jim Cash,
Jack Epps Jr.
Director of photography Bill Butler
Production designer Kirk M. Petruccelli
Editor Michael R. Miller
Music Randy Edelman
Co-producer Beau Marks
Visual effects John Nelson
Animatronic effects Walt Conti
Casting Mindy Marin
Color/stereo
Cast:
Terri Flores Jennifer Lopez
Danny Rich Ice Cube
Paul Sarone Jon Voight
Dr. Steven Cale Eric Stoltz
Warren Westridge Jonathan Hyde
Gary Dixon Owen Wilson
Denise Kalberg Kari Wuhrer
Mateo Vincent Castellanos
Poacher Danny Trejo
Running time -- 90 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 4/9/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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