ANACONDA 1997 (FILM)

Anaconda is a 1997, adventure-horror film, directed by Luis Llosa, starring Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Owen Wilson, and Eric Stoltz. It centers around a film crew for National Geographic who are kidnapped by a hunter who is going after the world's largest giant anaconda, which is discovered in the Amazon Rainforest. Though a box office hit, the film was critically panned. It was followed by the sequel Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid.


Plot
Shooting a documentary about a long-lost Indian tribe on the Amazon River, director Terri Flores (Jennifer Lopez) and members of her crew, including cameraman Danny Rich (Ice Cube), production manager Denise Kalberg (Kari Wührer), soundman Gary Dixon (Owen Wilson), visionary Warren Westridge (Jonathan Hyde), anthropologist Professor Steven Cale (Eric Stoltz) and captain of the boat Mateo (Vincent Castellanos), comes across stranded Paraguay snake hunter Paul Sarone (Jon Voight) and help him, believing he knows how to find the tribe they're searching for, but Sarone acts strangely and the crew suspect something.
While trying to free the boat's propeller from a rope, Cale is stung in the throat by a wasp, which got in his scuba gear and leaves him unconscious. With that, Sarone takes command of the boat and the crew. They are then forced to help him achieve his true objective—hunting down and capturing a record-breaking Green Anaconda he had been tracking.


Mateo is the first of the crew to be killed by the anaconda, that strangles him to death outside a boat where a poacher (Danny Trejo) was killed at the beginning of the film. The rest try to find him while Gary sides with Sarone, saying if they help him find the anaconda, he will help them get out alive. Ironically, Gary is killed next when they attempt to capture the anaconda. The survivors knock out and then tie up Sarone. When Denise attempts to kill Sarone, he gets the edge and chokes her before dumping her body in the river where she drowns. The anaconda returns and kills Westridge before the snake itself is shot dead and Sarone incapacitated by the newly awakened Cale. Danny punches Sarone, knocking Sarone into the river.
Later on, Terri and Danny, two of the surviving members of the crew, are captured when Sarone catches up to them. He dumps a bucket of monkey blood on them and then uses them as bait in an attempt to capture a second, larger anaconda. The anaconda wraps around Terri and Danny and begins to squeeze the life out of Terri. The snake still squeezing Terri and Danny are caught in a net by Sarone, but escape when the snake breaks free. Terri and Danny cut their bonds and break free as Sarone himself is killed by his quarry. The snake becomes trapped in the smoke stack, which Danny ignites and it seems to have died. As Terri and Danny recuperate on a nearby dock, the snake appears one final time. Danny beats the anaconda with an axe until it is finally slain.
Afterwards, Terri and Danny reunite with Cale on the ship, and as they float down the river, accidentally locate the natives they were originally searching for. They realize Sarone was right and begin filming their documentary as the movie ends.


Reception
The film received negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film received 38% positive reviews, based on 45 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 37 out of 100, based on 20 reviews. Although not being well received, the film was a success at the box office debuting at number #1, where it remained for 2 consecutive weeks. One of the few positive reviews was by Roger Ebert (co-host Gene Siskel agreed), who gave it three and a half out of four stars, calling it "a slick, scary, funny creature feature, beautifully photographed and splendidly acted in high adventure style."

Trailer


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