Anacondas: The Hunt For The Blood Orchid

Everyone says that the original Anaconda was saved by Jon Voight's crazed overacting; too bad there's nothing on that level to rescue its sequel. A group of drug executives (including one standard-issue mad scientist) are in search of a rare flower that acts as a fountain of youth; unfortunately it grows only in the wilds of Borneo, requiring a boat trip that gets sidetracked, taking a dive off a waterfall, stranding our heroes in giant snake country. Thus we are treated to endless chatter and precious little incident as the heroes wade further into the jungle, with the occasional crocodile and poisonous spider appearing to distract from the fact that the studio didn't budget for sustained anaconda action. The film was written by seven writers, which explains the torrent of clichés and rip-offs from other movies, but that doesn't excuse the long passages in which nothing happens and the constant stream of abuse the characters hurl at each other; I could have lived without the constantly-panicking Bill Paxton archetype, and the tedious squabbling about commerce versus morals. Suffice it to say that you'll root for the snakes, even in their feeble CGI incarnations. The bare-bones extras include a "making of" featurette of nominal interest to special-effects buffs, an eight-minute reel of deleted scenes and some previews. (Columbia TriStar)