Anaconda . Tucson Weekly . 04-17-97

Anaconda

DIRECTED BY: Luis Llosa

REVIEWED: 04-17-97

It's been about 20 years since audiences were scared out of the ocean by Jaws, so in these nostalgic times why not another huge, man-eating creature flick? First off, the snake sucks: Choose between really cheesy animatron rubber snake puppet (smiling and looking for all the world like a reptilian George Hamilton), or really fake looking computer animated snake, neither of which does much in the way of terrifying. Secondly, the script is willfully poor ("Oh, shit, look!" one character says upon seeing a snake the size of a space shuttle coming towards him). On the plus side, though, you get an entertainingly mismatched cast (Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz and Ice Cube), a couple of beautiful, screaming women (only one of whom survives), another look at Owen Wilson (Bottlerocket), and a snake that kills its prey by first spinning it in a fast tango and then twisting its head like the cap on a Bud Light (I've had worse dates). Your call.

--Piers Marchant

Full Length Reviews
Anaconda

Other Films by Luis Llosa
The Specialist

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