Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid





An alright movie. Some good action scenes, but overall, pretty stupid. C+

um...this thread is about it's sequel

Umm, isn't this thread for the sequel? ANACONDA is the first one, ANACONDAS is the second one.


Anyway, here's my review of the second one:

ANACONDAS: THE HUNT FOR THE BLOOD ORCHID (2004)

I remember when the first Anaconda came out I thought it looked really cool. So I saw it in theaters and ended up pretty disappointed. It wasn’t nearly as much fun as I thought it looked. I didn’t expect much from the sequel because for one, the first was a disappointment and two, I was a lot younger when that one came out and I didn’t have much for taste then. I still expected the sequel to be better than the first though; it would be hard not to be. But alas, I can’t say it was. I’m not saying it’s worse either though. I’d say it’s pretty much a toss up. I’d give both the same rating.

You really wouldn’t think it would be hard to make a giant killer snake movie entertaining, but with two big budget (for a killer snake movie anyway – most are cheap straight-to-video releases) misses they sure make it out to be. I’m deathly afraid of snakes, but I don’t mind them in movies (it can be creepy and exciting to watch) and love a good killer snake movie (I’ve yet to see one though). However neither movie in this series is it. In fact both, but mostly the sequel, have quite a bit of boring parts. The characters bored me and whenever a couple of characters would start having a conversation I’d think, “Ugh! Just bring on the snakes already! I don’t care enough about these characters to find what they have to say interesting.” Of course I didn’t even get that frustrated until about 45 minutes into it and there still had been hardly any snakes in it. That was when the characters really started to bore me. That was just way too long to wait. And the opening kill doesn’t count because you hardly see anything. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not someone who needs non-stop action in a movie, in fact I absolutely love slower movies and character studies. Two of my favorite movies of the year are Open Water and Dogville. So I’d hardly say I’m some brainless mainstream moviegoer who can’t handle movies that are dialogue driven and not action packed. But when you are a brainless popcorn movie then please deliver the goods and be entertaining and fun. That’s the main place Anacondas fails. It’s not incredibly boring, but it’s nowhere near as fun as it could and should be.

The best thing about Anacondas is the monkey. It was adorable and easily my favorite character. The only human character I really liked was Sam (KaDee Strickland – The Grudge). I thought she was fun and liked that she was tough.

I will say that Anacondas does have one of the most suspenseful scenes of the year though. ****SPOILERS**** I was on the edge of my seat like you wouldn’t believe during the scene where the monkey was being chased by the anaconda. ****END SPOILERS****

Overall, Anacondas was a decent rental. It has its entertaining moments. It just wasn’t as fun as it could have been. It was also way too predictable. Not like I’d expect this to be original or anything, but it was just as by-the-books as they come. I’d still see a third though if they do one and again I’ll likely be expecting it to be better than its predecessors.

Grade: 6/10 (C+)

Barely passable monster mash but pretty braindead overall. All the characters are ripped straight from cliche 101 and there is one scene where anybody with a hint of computer knowledge will be screaming at the screen in annoyance. The original was far more enjoyable.

C-

A campy, trashy movie that could've become cult greatness if it had lived up to the "Anacondas" part of its title. As it stands, it's just a passable, sometimes fun movie. I really get a kick out of the original though.

C+