Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid

from Film Forum, 09/02/04

Where Adaptation turned orchid-hunting into a metaphor for pursing our dreams, Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid turns it into a cheap narrative device to draw some stupid people into the jungle where they end up fighting for their lives against giant snakes. Director Dwight Little's film follows scientists as they explore Borneo in search of a rare flower that reportedly has the powers to counteract the aging process. But instead of finding the fountain of youth, they meet a premature demise.

We're left with one burning question: Who really wanted a sequel to Anaconda anyway?

Bob Waliszewski (Plugged In) tells us that the movie "gushes vulgarity, abuses the Lord's name, and makes a joke out of sex. Oh, and one more thing: In real life anacondas don't gulp down 6-foot-4-inch humans like frogs down flies."

Michael Elliott (Movie Parables) writes, "Overall, it's a B-movie with a B-movie cast with no aspirations to be anything but that."

David DiCerto (Catholic News Service) says it's "an atrocious action thriller. Made sillier by the fact that anacondas are not indigenous to Borneo … Little's sequel manages to squeeze out a few cheap screams but, for the most part, the cheesy dialogue is scarier than the hokey computer-animated constrictors and the best acting is done by a rhesus monkey."

"There are some heroic acts and characters," says Lori Souder (Christian Spotlight), "but in my mind, not nearly enough to make this movie worth watching."

Want to see some more negative reviews? Here are some mainstream press responses.