Anaconda ** (1997, Jon Voight, Jennifer Lopez, Eric Stoltz , Owen Wilson, Ice Cube, Danny Trejo, Jonathan Hyde) – So Bad It’s Good Movie Review 10

Director Luis Llosa’s 1997 monster-movie thriller Anaconda is sublimely ridiculous, with the big Anaconda snake threatening an Amazon film-doc expedition. It may have a few likeable down-on-their-luck stars in in it, but it’s risible rock-bottom film-making.

Eric Stoltz is mysteriously put out of action very early on, but nothing (at least till the finale) stops Jon Voight’s engagingly awful over-the-top snake-collector baddie turn. It’s a sad comment on the movie, though, that this ‘so-bad-it’s-good performance’ is the film’s major attraction.

Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube have a lot to do and, if we’re being generous, we could say that they are adequate, though Jonathan Hyde’s English bounder stereotype is a pain – and pretty offensive too.

Anaconda is rotten, old-fashioned film-making, with its cardboard sets, a studio-bound jungle and tacky special effects. But it’s sneakily enjoyable, especially for those who like to have a good old laugh at terrible movies.

I bet Owen Wilson misses this one off his CV, maybe even Danny Trejo too, who has made a few other stinkers in his time. How on earth could this low-grade junk have cost $45million back in 1997? We’ll never know.

2015 brings Lake Placid vs. Anaconda.

© Derek Winnert 2014 So Bad It’s Good Movie Review 10

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