Anaconda Details

A low-brow 1950s monster movie concept is given a blockbuster makeover in this cheerful slither-fest. With predictable stupidity, the film shows how a documentary film crew sailing up the Amazon gets used as snake bait by deranged explorer Jon Voight in his obsessive quest to capture a legendary 40ft anaconda. As the competent cast fights a computer-generated garden hose with fangs, and as Voight's performance goes into camp overdrive, the scaly scares shrink while the screams of laughter increase. Director Luis Llosa's ecological message gets as lost as the film crew, but at least his processed snake charmer makes up for what it lacks in exotic fright with daft fun.

A bungled rip-off of Jaws, with Voight, who seems to relish his role as an expert snake-hunter, providing what sounds like a parody of Brando at his most excessive; otherwise the action is decidedly tame.