A scientific expedition group travels to Borneo to find a flower called the Blood Orchid that supposably can prolong peoples lives. But the way to the flower is not as easy as they first had thought it would be, and the group find themselves in a heap of trouble when losing their boat and has to walk through the rainforest by foot. If that wasn't bad enough, the rainforest is inhabited by huge nasty anacondas that seem to like to feed on humans among other things.
This is the sequel to 1997's Anaconda and personally I prefer this one over the first movie, at least here the snakes look all right. A movie like this is of course not to be taken too seriously, but if you can take it for what it is, it can actually be quite an entertaining ride. It's always easy to complain about B-flicks of this caliber, but since so many people before me already has done that, I won't be doing that here. To be honest, I actually enjoy this little flick, it's fun, fast-paced and will definitely keep you entertained if nothing else. For being a creature feature it's actually pretty good, I mean that are a lot of worse ones out there for sure.
Every movie must have some kind of story, but when it comes to movies like this, you couldn't actually care less about the story, you just wanna see nasty snakes kill people, right? Anyway, the story is nothing special but manages to do the job and sure needs to be there for everything to work. So these people set out for Borneo with the mission of finding a flower that only bloom once every seventh year so time is not on their hands. Once in Borneo it's the rainy season and no one wants to take the group up the river on a boat. But luckily for them, they soon find a guy named Bill who's willing to give them a ride for a large sum of money. This Bill guy is the hero of the movie and is so good and righteous it's sickening at times. He's a real man who stand up for what is right, but since I just wanted to see people die in different ways, it was just a bit too irritating. Although he's fairly easy to ignore and the movie's is still enjoyable.
Instead of going the safer way on the river they end up getting thrown down a waterfall and so their boat is lost. After that they have to go through the jungle by foot which soon makes them run into a huge anaconda, and after that things just keep getting harder and harder for the group. The snakes are CGI but the special effects are good and they look pretty cool so no real complaints there. There are a few scenes that features the snakes attack which look really good, but the movie sure could've had some more of those scenes. It's good but it's just not enough, I mean that's the biggest reason for why you would wanna watch a movie like this.
No blood, no gore, but it's fast-paced and entertaining all the way through. The movies has some humour in it but I wouldn't say it's very comical, there's this guy who complains all the time, but it's more annoying to watch than humorous. Sometimes I felt that Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid took itself a bit too seriously, and that is of course not a good thing since the viewer will most likely not take a movie like this very seriously. But it's still not as bad as it might sound. The movie's totally watchable, despite all its flaws.
The acting. Well what can you expect, not very much. It's actually neither good or bad, it's not gonna impress you but it's not gonna be totally wooden or laughable either. The actors manage to do the job ok and that's all that's needed. There are no really likable characters and I found myself rooting for the snakes, but on the other hand, I would've been rooting for the snakes even if I had liked the characters.
If you just take it for what it is, it's entertaining, fun and works well. Like I said before, it's easy to complain and take swings at these types of movies, but I found myself being entertained enough from start till finish and that's good enough.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Anacondas 2
MOVIE YEAR: 2004
DIRECTOR: Dwight H. Little
WRITING CREDITS: Hans Bauer, Jim Cash
GENRE: Horror, Action, Adventure
CAST: Johnny Messner, KaDee Strickland, Salli Richardson
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 97 min
RATING: 6/10
Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid Website/IMDB Click here
Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid Trailer Click here
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