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SYNOPSIS:
Coil up...The giant anacondas are back in the next Chapter
of the thrilling Anaconda series starring David Hasselhoff
as a ruthless mercenary snake slayer. At a secret research
facility in the European countryside, two mega snakes are
undergoing testing by a brillant scientist. But when the financier
pushes the experiments too far, the snakes escape, hungry
and heading for civilization. What Hammett doesn't know is
that one of the snakes is expecting a litter of slithering
offspring. Now the race is on to head off the snakes unstoppable
onslaught before they reach the city.
MOVIE
REVIEW
Some 11 years ago, Anaconda was one of those movies where animals get portrayed as blood lusting killers and had Man hunting them down for the trophy cabinet. You have spiders, crocodiles, sharks and of course, snakes. If going by the cast list can give you an indication of a film's production values, then the first movie of the franchise starred J Lo, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz and even Owen Wilson. A sequel was made 4 years ago with the likes of erm, Johnny Messner, Matthew Marsden and Karl Yune amongst others, not exactly any names that will roll off tongues.
Continuing the franchise with direct to video material, we have some recognizable stars like John Rhys-Davies (Gimli the dwarf of LOTR fame) and David Hasselhoff! One wonders why the former would associate himself with a film like this, while the latter, well, has literally been stuck in TV land ever since the popular Knight Rider and Baywatch series, making cameo forays in film from time to time, with nothing groundbreaking to showcase.
In Anaconda III, the excuse of a plot for the movie lies somewhere in Jurassic Park territory, where the snakes are bred for scientific research, only for an accident to take place and having them escape. So it's up to scientist Amanda (Crystal Allen) and Hammett (Hasselhoff) the mercenary tracker and an assembled team of rag-tag hunters to capture the reptiles before they wreck more havoc, especially when the female anaconda is pregnant, and having her eggs hatch would mean trouble since these are slippery slithers with mutated genes, no thanks to scientist tinkering with DNA and playing God in the search for the cancer cure.
It's an extremely cheap production if one can make out superimposed backgrounds no thanks to the lack of budget in having proper finishing, nor to shoot on location inside vehicles. The snakes also look terribly CG-ed, and as if we need to be constantly told how menacing these creatures are, characters mouth off every now and then about their size, recapping some statistics such as the reptiles being 60 feet long, and being extremely fast. The film relies heavily on gore and blood to try and gain an audience, and it's no surprise that decapitations are the order of the day with heads being snapped off, shown in unflinching fashion, and being designed with a modified tail that comes complete with a spear for chest impaling.
Since this film was shot back to back with Anaconda 4 (yes there is one!), those who are rare fans will no doubt celebrate the return of snake hunting season. Otherwise you're likely to chuckle at how amateurish this entire looks and feels, from poor script to bad acting.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
Only trailers for Sony Pictures films such as Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, Felon, Resident Evil: Degeneration (which is an animated film), Wesley Snipes being relegated from the A-list to The Art of War II: Betrayal, and Linewatch.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Since this is designed for the television screen, you get that decent anamorphic widescreen transfer, and yes, the sound design is above average since it's milked to give you that sense surround effect when the snakes creep up over and above, and around you. But it's nothing to make you jump off your seat of course.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Stefan Shih
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