Did you know that the year before the Anaconda remake starring Jack Black came out there was a Chinese remake? While it may fall short of the first two entries in the official franchise, it’s probably the second-best Anaconda remake ever made. It’s certainly a notch or two above the SyFy Channel sequels, that’s for sure.
A troupe of circus performers head down river to Thailand on a rickety boat through a jungle thought to be home to the mythical “Crimson Anaconda”. On their voyage, they pick up a stowaway. The caravan soon learns their new passenger is obsessed with capturing the snake and isn’t above using them as bait.
Anaconda is far from perfect but it’s a breezy good time. It clocks in at a brisk seventy-nine minutes and there isn’t a whole lot of fat, which is always appreciated in a killer snake movie. In fact, the first five minutes has enough scenes of snakes swallowing people whole, puking out their corpses, and wrapping around their victims before crushing them to death to please just about any Anaconda fan out there. There are also fun moments like when an explosion sends hundreds of snakes raining down on our heroes and a gnarly bit where a baby snake worms its way into a guy’s ear. Plus, the CGI for the snake is miles better than most of the computer effects normally found in Chinese productions.
Sure, some of the snake attack sequences get repetitive (especially towards the end). I could’ve done without some of the lame comedy bits too (including a scene with a “zombie”). I also was a bit letdown that these circus performers didn’t have an acrobat in the group. Can you imagine how cool it would’ve been to see a trapeze artist swinging on vines to narrowly avoid becoming Snake Chow? Oh well. At any rate, Anaconda certainly isn’t boring and boasts a fairly sturdy body count. It’s no Hunt for the Blood Orchid, but it’ll do in a pinch.
AKA: Anacondas. AKA: Anaconda: Cursed Jungle.
sci-Fi channel sequels are better then part 2 IMO
ReplyDelete