humanities quest for knowledge never ends .
so a team of scientists and film-makers travel to the amazon to search for a legendary indian tribe .
the party consists of anthropologist steven cale ( eric stoltz ) and the camera team consisting of terri flores ( jennifer lopez ) , danny rich ( ice cube ) , gary dixon ( owen wilson ) , denise kahlberg ( kari wuhrer ) and warren westridge ( jonathan hyde ) .
early on their journey they meet paul sarone ( jon voight ) whose boat is stuck on the shore .
they agree to give him a ride to the next village .
he claims to know the area well and can be useful locating the native tribe .
very soon their friendliness backfires on the group because sarone turns out to be a snake hunter without scruples who only wants to catch a giant anaconda and sell it to a zoo .
we don’t have to wait too long for the giant snake .
she just had a panther hors d’oevre and now is looking for the main course .
our heroes paddle around in the amazonas as if it were the pool in their own backyard .
no wonder giant animals mistake their splashing for a dinner bell .
our anaconda is a polite one and swallows the first victim in one big gulp .
enjoy !
so much for the first attempt to catch her .
but who would want to catch a giant snake with a fishing pole ?
our villain sarone shows his soft side when he stops terri from shooting the snake .
too bad that anaconda is just about to strangle another member of the expedition .
one by one she goes after the others .
eric stoltz is stung by a giant wasp right in the beginning and is mercifully unconcious for the rest of the adventure .
the rest of the crew keeps entertaining the viewer although not the way the makers of the movie had planned .
however the scenes without the anaconda are rather boring .
whenever the leading lady shows up we’re in for a laugh .
the snake reminds us of a favorite character of a famous animated movie even if she should be an awe-inspiring monster .
her attacks always follow the same plan : one last hypnotic look – she’s looking at you , kid – then she speedily wraps herself around her victim and starts to gush it down .
mostly we don’t see the act of devouring .
but she looks nice when she wiggles away with her bulging middle part .
whoever did the special effects on this movie may have wanted to go to a zoo first and study some real snakes .
maybe then the anaconda model would have looked more real .
the animatronics are somewhat more believable .
but that didn’t work for the strangling scenes .
don’t go see the movie for the f/x .
they are everything but up-to-date .
the viewer who likes to watch the end credits will see to his/her surprise that a snake expert was a consultant for the team .
we may doubt though that he has ever seen the final result of his work .
a well known american science magazine is also mentioned in the credits , but i will refrain from naming it here to avoid further damage to its reputation .
the majority of viewer will have left the theater as soon as the credits start rolling , anyway .
what kind of audience is the target group for this movie ?
hard to say .
this can’t be a serious horror movie , or can it ?
see for yourself .