In a film world littered with unnecessary sequels, Anacondas: The Hunt For The Blood Orchid fits in nicely. Nobody asked for it judging from the quality of 1998's original film that featured the likes of Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube, but Sony gave it a go anyway due to the first films sixty-five million gross (a total this movie made half on in theatres - which is still a surprising figure to me).

Anacondas plays out like a moderately entertaining direct-to-video sequel that somehow managed to find its way into the multi-plex and while, like the first one, it relies too heavily on so-so CGI effects it plays out more as a generally watchable adventure film in the vein of King Solomon's Mines and the like that's packed with scenes involving a boat ride down a waterfall, crocodile attacks, and it just so happens to have giant, killer snakes in it.

Starting with a pretty standard set-up, Anacondas has a group of researchers heading off to Borneo to collect blood orchids, a rare plant that will stop aging and disease. There's the stereotypical team made up of grizzled boat captain Bill (Johnny Messner), the J. Lo like Gail (Salli Richardson-Whitfield), a company supervisor, and a plucky team of scientists (including Eugene Byrd as the annoying "Cole", who's on hand for comic relief).

They head down into the Amazon with a week to obtain some of the plants, but unlucky for them (since we saw a tribesman attacked by a giant anaconda in the opening scenes) they run up against all sorts of problems including the fact that their boat sinks and they have to continue their journey on land (a welcome turn of events that helps separate the movie from the original).

From here the cast starts being picked-off by giant anacondas, but somehow the script (which took four writers to complete including Ed Neumeier who wrote Starship Troopers and co-wrote Robocop with Michael Miner, who co-writes here as well) stays focuses more on the jungle adventure than the creatures as the attack scenes are really secondary to all the scenery and perils our crew come up against.

While Anacondas might not deliver enough of what fans of the first movie expect (and would probably win an award for most long-winded movie title of 2004), it was nice to see it being spun into a different, slightly more interesting, direction and with veteran Dwight H. Little (who did the fourth Halloween movie and Indiana Jones/Romancing The Stone clone Bloodstone) guiding the movie it makes for decent "rainy afternoon" entertainment. It's completely mindless and the finale is as mediocre as they tend to come, but it's a steadily made bit of silliness nonetheless.

Star Messner makes for a serviceable hero with KaDee Strickland (who plays Sam) making for a throw-away love interest - but the true "actor" of the film might just be Bill's pet monkey as there's at least two jump scenes involving it and plenty of its "reaction shots" peppered throughout. (Chris Hartley, 10/23/06)

Directed By: Dwight H. Little.
Written By: John Claflin, Daniel Zelman, Michael Miner, Ed Neumeier.

Starring: Johnny Messner, KaDee Strickland, Matthew Marsden, Nicholas Gonzalez.