Up against the vicious snakes
This movie has nothing to do with Anaconda, the 1997 giant-snake movie originally set on an ill-fated boat trip down the Amazon forest. This one takes place on the Asian island of Borneo (although the filming took place on Fiji), in a hemisphere where (incidentally) anacondas don’t even exist in r
Film: Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid
Starring: Johnny Messner, Morris Chestnut, Eugene Byrd
Directed by: Dwight Little
Rated: PG-13 for action violence, scary images and some language.
Length: 99 minutes
Preview by: Sebidde Kiryowa
Showing at: Cineplex, Garden City today
This movie has nothing to do with Anaconda, the 1997 giant-snake movie originally set on an ill-fated boat trip down the Amazon forest. This one takes place on the Asian island of Borneo (although the filming took place on Fiji), in a hemisphere where (incidentally) anacondas don’t even exist in real life.
In Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, a big American pharmaceutical company assembles a team of young and good-looking researchers to travel to the deep, dark rainforests of Borneo, to find a rare flower called the blood orchid that will make the drug company billions of dollars.
The orchids contain an element that prevents human cells from dying and, therefore, in theory, can be used to create a drug that will slow down the physical aging process in humans, rendering them young for longer.
The team includes the likes of the money-hungry Dr. Jack Byron (Matthew Marsden), who is hell-bent on getting the flower; the ‘funny’ black guy Gordon Mitchell (Morris Chestnut), the J-Lo look-a-like Gail Stern (Salli Richardson-Whitfield), southern belle Samantha Rogers (KaDee Strickland), the comical Cole Burris (Eugene Byrd) and the rather unfortunate Dr. Ben Douglas (Nicholas Gonzalez).
They have difficulty hiring a boat to take them up the river since it is the rainy season. That is the first hint of danger. fortunately, in a local bar, they find Bill Johnson (Johnny Messner)— a ruggedly handsome, disgruntled boat captain with a dark past, who is willing to take them on his boat for a ‘mere’ $50,000 (considering the danger ahead).
Johnson comes complete with his trusted native assistant Tran (Karl Yune) and the team doctor, Ben (Nicholas Gonzalez), who is only along for insurance purposes.
As the group gets closer to the blood orchids, they soon realise that something evil lurks in the murky waters and the dark jungle of Borneo. And it is not the deadly spiders, the hungry crocodiles, the blood-thirsty leeches or the dead head-hunters.
That evil comes in the form of a handful of anacondas that are not only horny (it is mating season and they are all the more dangerous) but also extremely hungry and very huge. See, the blood orchid made them longer, faster and smarter. To find a way out of the rainforest, the researchers must outrun and outlive the creatures. And what are the odds of that?
Most critics were displeased with the movie’s less than standard acting. Then there is the general fact that Anacondas is a movie that never takes itself too seriously albeit unknowingly. As Brendan Cullin curtly puts it: “This movie is not a horror classic folks. Be prepared for a good laugh.â€
This, depending on where you stand, might be its redeeming factor or the very fact that buries it. Whereas some critics say this means “colossal failure†others contend “that’s what makes ‘Anacondas’ a decent, though far from perfect, movie.â€
Starring: Johnny Messner, Morris Chestnut, Eugene Byrd
Directed by: Dwight Little
Rated: PG-13 for action violence, scary images and some language.
Length: 99 minutes
Preview by: Sebidde Kiryowa
Showing at: Cineplex, Garden City today
This movie has nothing to do with Anaconda, the 1997 giant-snake movie originally set on an ill-fated boat trip down the Amazon forest. This one takes place on the Asian island of Borneo (although the filming took place on Fiji), in a hemisphere where (incidentally) anacondas don’t even exist in real life.
In Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, a big American pharmaceutical company assembles a team of young and good-looking researchers to travel to the deep, dark rainforests of Borneo, to find a rare flower called the blood orchid that will make the drug company billions of dollars.
The orchids contain an element that prevents human cells from dying and, therefore, in theory, can be used to create a drug that will slow down the physical aging process in humans, rendering them young for longer.
The team includes the likes of the money-hungry Dr. Jack Byron (Matthew Marsden), who is hell-bent on getting the flower; the ‘funny’ black guy Gordon Mitchell (Morris Chestnut), the J-Lo look-a-like Gail Stern (Salli Richardson-Whitfield), southern belle Samantha Rogers (KaDee Strickland), the comical Cole Burris (Eugene Byrd) and the rather unfortunate Dr. Ben Douglas (Nicholas Gonzalez).
They have difficulty hiring a boat to take them up the river since it is the rainy season. That is the first hint of danger. fortunately, in a local bar, they find Bill Johnson (Johnny Messner)— a ruggedly handsome, disgruntled boat captain with a dark past, who is willing to take them on his boat for a ‘mere’ $50,000 (considering the danger ahead).
Johnson comes complete with his trusted native assistant Tran (Karl Yune) and the team doctor, Ben (Nicholas Gonzalez), who is only along for insurance purposes.
As the group gets closer to the blood orchids, they soon realise that something evil lurks in the murky waters and the dark jungle of Borneo. And it is not the deadly spiders, the hungry crocodiles, the blood-thirsty leeches or the dead head-hunters.
That evil comes in the form of a handful of anacondas that are not only horny (it is mating season and they are all the more dangerous) but also extremely hungry and very huge. See, the blood orchid made them longer, faster and smarter. To find a way out of the rainforest, the researchers must outrun and outlive the creatures. And what are the odds of that?
Most critics were displeased with the movie’s less than standard acting. Then there is the general fact that Anacondas is a movie that never takes itself too seriously albeit unknowingly. As Brendan Cullin curtly puts it: “This movie is not a horror classic folks. Be prepared for a good laugh.â€
This, depending on where you stand, might be its redeeming factor or the very fact that buries it. Whereas some critics say this means “colossal failure†others contend “that’s what makes ‘Anacondas’ a decent, though far from perfect, movie.â€