Luis Llosa's 1997 Anacondas is best remembered, when it is remembered at all, for helping to introduce Jennifer Lopez to a waiting world. That, and for the 6m-animatronic creature of the title, which managed to devour most of the cast -- including, gratifyingly, the arch-overactors Eric Stoltz and Jon Voight -- before the film was over.
Mysteriously, Lopez did not choose to sign on for Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, the quasi sequel opening nationwide today, directed by the long-suffering sequel specialist Dwight Little (Free Willy 2, Halloween 4). In place of her star power, the producers have upped the ante on the snakes. There are now an awful lot of them, and although no precise figures are offered, they look a great deal longer than 12m, having grown to monster size as a result of feeding on an exotic orchid found only in the jungles of Borneo. The "blood orchid" contains a mysterious enzyme that removes the cap to the number of times a cell can reproduce, opening the door to eternal youth and infinite growth.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SONY PICTURES
That's exactly the kind of exotic compound destined to attract the greedy attention of an evil pharmaceutical corporation, and soon one based in New York has sent an expedition in search of it, led by a coolly calculating scientist (Matthew Marsden, whose uncertain moral status is suggested by his posh British accent). Along for the ride are two bean counters from the head office (Salli Richardson-Whitfield and Morris Chestnut), a cowardly, comic-relief technical adviser (Eugene Byrd), a comely blond research assistant (KaDee Strickland) and a largely uncharacterized medic (Nicholas Gonzalez) with "Eat me first" seemingly tattooed on his forehead.
Once in Borneo, the searchers contract with a grease-stained riverboat captain (Johnny Messner, a graduate of the raspy-voiced, Vin Diesel school of action acting) to lead them to the orchid fields, hidden deep within a jungle swollen to the bursting point by the rainy season. Mysterious creatures slither through the underbrush, unnoticed by all on board the tiny boat except for the captain's simian sidekick, a squirrel monkey who seems to get more close-ups than the rest of the cast combined.
Little delays dinner time until the film is almost half over, but once it begins, the munching is graphic, startling and occasionally even inventive. It helps that the serpents are seen only in brief shock cuts -- a stylistic choice probably forced by the film's minimal digital effects budget, but one that lets the audience's imagination fill in the blanks.
A programmer that once upon a time would have played on the bottom half of double bills, Anacondas has no pretensions and gets its little job done effectively, providing some small-scale laughs and chills for the late summer season.
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