Anaconda
IN THEATERS NOW
Rating: PG-13
Review Date: 07-22-97
Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz
What can an anaconda do to you? Well it doesn't take long into this film
to find out exactly what an anaconda can and will do to someone. As it
says in the films beginning, an anaconda can grow to nearly 40 feet in
length. In this film the killer snake is at least that long. Jennifer Lopez
plays Terri Flores a small director looking to shoot the major documentary
about the Myst tribe in the rainforest. She is shooting this film for Dr.
Steven Cale (Eric Stoltz) with her cameraman (Ice Cube). As they are traversing
the river they also meet up with Paul (Jon Voight) who is stranded and
needs a lift, or so they think. What awaits this crew however is not as
much the mysterious tribe instead it would be the mysterious anaconda.
I like Jennifer Lopez a lot. She has given a number of good performances
but here she wasn't quite as good as some of her previous performances.
Ice Cube on the other hand impressed me in his role as the cameraman, I
really liked what he did in this film. And then there was Jon Voight. Some
of his previous work has been excellent, which led me to believe that maybe
the role he played here was meant to be overacted. If it wasn't meant to
be that way he really blew the part. Every time you looked at him his facial
expressions almost made me want to laugh instead of be scared. I really
was disappointed in Voight's performance.
However this film did get intense from time to time. As the anaconda slithers
through the water towards its next victim, you can't help but tense up
a bit. The tension is there at moments in the film that make you kind of
grab the edge of your seat.
At other times in the film I could compare it to Jaws and the Friday
the 13th series. The snake sometimes reminded me of the mechanical
shark in Jaws and some of the backdrops and setups in the film reminded
me of the Friday the 13th and Halloween movies. Sometimes
laughable, sometimes tense the two tend to counteract one another and provide
for an average watch.
Grade: C+
Parents Guide: PG-13 is questionable on this film. I have seen many films
rated R that weren't as touchy as this film. What's in it? Well there is
one sexual situation, not much to see but it is there. The violence and
language levels seem a little high for a PG-13 film. And on top of that
it is extremely gross at times as the anaconda devours its prey. This film
includes an anaconda that may give kids worse nightmares then Jurassic
Park ever did. This might be partially due to the fact that anacondas
are more real then a dinosaur is to anyone in this lifetime. This is a
touchy film and I wouldn't let my kids see it under the age of 13. Any
other decisions are a judgment call, but anyone who gets nightmares easily
may want to think twice on this one.