Director: Louis Llosa
Year: 1997
Country: USA/Brazil/Peru
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Heading into the Amazon, a documentary team from Los Angeles studying a long-lost Indian tribe in the area runs afoul of a hunter searching for a legendary anaconda and is forced to help him track the deadly creature throughout the river basin where he's hunting it.
Review:
This was a decent and quite enjoyable creature feature. One of the better features here is the rather impressive pace that runs throughout here, as this one runs along pretty quickly with the introduction getting started immediately, picking up the hunter is right after that and the snake attacks carry the action throughout the rest of the film. Those action scenes are all quite fun, from the opening poacher attack, the search on the abandoned boat and the first battle with the creature as they try to wrangle the water-bound snake from their boat only for the resulting chaos it it's escape to set the stage for its' later scenes.
That is the film's best part which is the final half-hour as there's a large number of ambushes and attacks here, from the trap at the waterfall where there's the fun water-chase with the creature coming after the swimmers in the water trying to dislodge the boat before finally getting to the spectacular waterfall confrontation catching the fleeing victim in mid-air before crashing into the boat below to the greater fun of the big chase through the abandoned warehouse. From the hunter's trap and eventual escape to running through the different levels with the creature continually crashing through the surroundings and finally getting rid of the massive snake in a fiery blast, this packs a large amount of action, suspense and rather impressive moments into it. Along with the enjoyable animatronic special effects for the snake, these are more than enough to hold off the few flaws in here.
One of the bigger flaws is the fact that the first half here plays off as more of an adventure film about the exploration of the Amazon who stumbles upon a suspicious snake-hunter who alters their course for his own needs. None of this is handled with the sense of urgency in getting the snake out in a film about a giant killer snake as it moves the film along the needles detours simply to get the point across aren't all that tied into the exploits of a creature feature. There's also the films' tendency to go a little overboard with the special effects here as the use of the CGI snake isn't nearly as convincing as the puppets, act way too slick and have very little depth to it as the performed actions during these scenes give away its' origins. It's not enough to hold this one down, but the other problems here is where the flaws are.
Overview: ***/5
As a fun, throwback action-packed creature feature, this one manages to have a lot to like about it even with some issues that do manage to hold this one back. Give this one a shot if you're a fan of high-energy action-heavy films or appreciate a fun throwback creature feature effort, while those that don't enjoy that should heed caution.
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