Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid

Plot synopsis:
A team of researchers funded by a New York pharmaceutical firm Wexel Hall, including Dr. Jack Byron, Gordon Mitchell, Sam Rogers, Gail Stern, Cole Burris, and Dr. Ben Douglas leave for a jungle in Borneo to search for a "blood orchid", a flower they believe can be used as a type of fountain of youth. Though their guide Captain Bill Johnson and his partner Tran has misgivings about which path to take, Jack convinces him to take an unsafe path. The team goes over a waterfall and has to wade through the river. A giant anaconda emerges from the water and swallows Ben whole, but the rest of the team escape from the river. Bill assures them that it was the largest snake he has ever seen and that it should take weeks for it to grow hungry again. However, most of the team demand that the expedition be called off. They travel to Bill's friend, John Livingston, who lives on the river, to see if Johnson can borrow his boat but they find Livingston dead and his boat crashed.
They find themselves in a small native village consisting of thatched huts and a disemboweled anaconda with a pair of human legs hanging out of the snake's abdomen. The team realizes that the snakes are unusually large in size because their lives have been extended through the orchids, which are a part of the local food chain. Jack says that since they must be close to the orchids, they should press on. However, the others contend that there is no evidence that the orchids will have the same effect on humans. Wanting to leave, they start building an escape raft.
Gordon discovers Livington's radio and gun and realizes they could have called for help long ago. Jack is unable to convince him to allow the expedition to continue, so he paralyzes him using a poisonous spider. As Jack joins the others at the raft, Sam discovers Gordon and the spider bite. An anaconda drops down from the rafters and swallows Gordon alive soon after she leaves the building. The others arrive just as it finishes, so Bill sets the building on fire in hopes of killing the anaconda but notices that it already made its escape. Jack uses the commotion to steal the raft.
With no more material to make another raft, they hack through the jungle to beat Jack to the orchids and retrieve their raft. On the way they fall into a cave trying to escape from an anaconda. Cole gets lost and panics after finding a skeleton. He runs into Bill's partner, Tran, and as they return to the others, Tran gets pulled under and Cole tries to find him but all he sees is Tran's lost flashlight floating. Tran is eaten by an anaconda under water. Bill tries to find Cole and Tran but also notices Tran's lost flashlight floating but with his blood surrounding it. The terrified Cole escapes from the caves behind the group, seconds ahead of the snake, which follows him through the hole and gets stuck. Sam uses a machete to behead it, but another snake captures Cole. The team follows and find him being constricted but still alive. Bill throws his knife and impales the snake through the head, killing it and freeing Cole.
The group finds the raft just as Jack finds the blood orchids, hanging precariously above a pit in which a ball of male anacondas are mating with the queen. Jack shoots Bill in the arm and forces the party to accompany him to the orchids. He has Sam cross the pit via a thin log to fill a backpack with orchids. As she returns, the log cracks. Jack orders her to throw him the backpack, but Sam threatens to drop the flowers into the pit unless he drops the gun. The log breaks, and she falls, landing halfway down the pit. As the others help her climb out, Jack attempts to retrieve the backpack. The spider he used to paralyze Gordon escapes from its jar and bites him. Jack falls into the pit and is devoured as Sam and the others escape.
The female anaconda notices them, but Gail tricks it into biting their fuel container. Bill tries to shoot the snake, but the gun is empty. Cole shoots it with a flare, causing a chain reaction that kills the snakes and destroys the blood orchids. Bill, Sam, Cole, and Gail make it back to the raft and leave.

Tags: suspenseful

Review:
She eventually was only accenting about one word per sentence, but by the climax she started fakin' it up with reckless abandon!And I'm sure plenty of girls will think Johnny "Five O'Clock Shadow" Messner is pretty hot, but for the most part you'll spend the first 10 minutes of the movie picking which characters you want to see swallowed whole by a giant anaconda.
The budget constraints still cramp its style, compared to A-list studio stuff, but it's the best film it possibly can be.With a touch more plot, involving a search for an ultra-mega-massively rare flower, called the Blood Orchid, that only blooms every seven years and can unlock the secret to everlasting life, there is a sophistication to the script, rather than plain old slither'n'slash.So we have a bunch of scientists on an expedition to the unknown depths of the Borneo jungle and it's not off to a good start.
Rating: * 1/2 out of ****As if further proof that I am in serious need of better taste, I was actually looking forward to seeing this movie, not so much because I was expecting anything great but because I'm a sucker for big-studio, jungle-set adventures.
In the hopes of becoming millionaires, a group of young, "attractive" researchers hire a boat, whose captain is expectedly hard-boiled and hunky, to take them into the jungles of Borneo in search of the rare Blood Orchid, a flower with the ability to prolong life but the catch is that it blooms for only a six month period every seven years, and they're approaching the last few weeks of that time span.
In performing these roles, the cast is almost all terrible (especially Johnny Messner as the lead), the only modicum of acting talent coming from Morris Chestnut and the promising Kadee Strickland.While I've done nothing but harp on the movie, the biggest praise I can shower it with is that it's rarely boring.
From the lush jungle scenery to the splendid visuals of the snakes right under the surface of the water, Anacondas is at least a movie that's always nice to look at.
The story combines elements of first film and provides exciting and stirring entertainment .It concerns about a scientific chief(Dennis Ardnt)assigns to his group(Morris Chesnut,Mattew Mardsen,Strickland,Salli Richardson,Eugene Byrd among others)encounter a strange flower called ¨Blood orchid¨that could grant lasting life.They are going out from New York City until Borneo jungle where is allegedly the rare flower.They hire an adventurer(Johnny Messner) leading the expedition by means a boat through the river and a dangerous forest.Meanwhile they confront each other and attacked by a pack of large Anacondas which are deadlier and bigger but the orchid gives longer existence.
The giant snakes savagely are stalking its prey and the group run afoul and fight against one nature's most fearsome predators.The movie delivers the goods with hair-raising chills,full of scares when the Anacondas appear with outstanding special effects.The giant snakes are majority made by computer generator but also by Animatronics and seem totally alive.Actors give vigorously physical performances dodging the Anacondas,running,bound and leaps or dangling over a well which contains a snakes nest.The Anacondas ,themselves,of course ,are the authentic stars and they're marvellous terrifyingly astounding and almost totally convincing.Spectacular music adjusted to the action by Nerida Tyson and colorful cinematography by Stephen Windon.The motion picture is regularly directed by Dwight H.
Little,an expert action genre such TV movies(24,Prison break,Bones)as cinema(Rapid fire,Masked for death,Free Willy 2,Murder at 1600).The film will like to former(Anaconda with Jennifer Lopez) film fans and adventures cinema enthusiastic.No for small kids by realistic,gory and violent attack scenes..
In increasing layers of difficulty, it's rainy season in Borneo and only Bill Johnson (Johnny Messner) is crazy enough to take the team upriver in his ramshackle boat before the season ends, despite the fact that they're offering $50,000, and as they make their way upstream, of course the team runs into giant anacondas of the type found in the first film.Like Anaconda, Anacondas has been getting a fairly bad rap and I can't quite figure out why.
That's not the only references to classics, as Bill Johnson's boat, "The Bloody Mary", a character in its own right, has stylistic similarities to Charlie Allnut's African Queen (from the 1951 film of the same name) and the overall journey has resemblances to Disney's Jungle Cruise.While the attack scenes may not be quite as clearly filmed and smoothly cut as the first film, Little and his editors make up for it by increasing the number and quality of gradually building suspense sequences where we see a snake through water or in other environments while our protagonists initially overlook them.
Everyone's a little too pretty (even the guys) to be believed as a representative cross-section of humanity but that's Hollywood for you.The fact that there are no anacondas in Borneo mildly detracts but I guess that's a minor squabble (someone really should have either done more research or simply placed the movie back in South America).
Little) SSSSsuper Ssssize Sssssnakes Redux!While it is hard to believe that there was an actual clamor  albeit a 7 years later one  for a sequel to the marginal hit 'Anaconda' starring Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube it is even harder to believe that the film is a near-virtual remake only substituting a documentary film-making crew with a scientific expedition that none-the-less winds up the river without a paddle in this rudderless display of new ineptitude.When a pharmaceutical conglomerate giant decides to listen to a panel of young, go-getting researchers to extract an extremely rare blood orchid from Borneo that may have the key to eternal youth (you can practically here the ka-ching!
of millions of cash registers and saliva foaming at the corners of their mouths with greed) they are pressed for time since the flower only blooms once every seven years (of course!) and literally have days to procure the bounty that awaits in the thick no-man's jungle that only offers rogue boat captains (you'd think a multi-gazillion corporation would have their own fleet of ships at the ready but NOOOOOO!!!) in questionably seedy bars with an appropriately slap-dash vessel at the wait.So begins the journey into fear since not one character in this unknown cast emerges with a unique thought as to maybe that this is not a good idea with the fact that it is monsoon season and they have not a clue as to the dangers that lie in waiting (cue the giant deadly snakes!)Captain Bill Johnson (can he be a more blandly named 'hero'!?!?- played by Messner, who resembles a deflated, charisma-less version of The Rock) skippers the team  with his Asian first mate, Tran (Yune) and cute monkey Kong (who gets the most close-ups, I kid you not then the entire cast combined!) in tow  with a few problems that derail them over a waterfall and eventually trekking through the treacherous tropical thicket where one-by-one they become prey to a 40 foot anaconda and several of his buddies (we learn that it is mating season  How convenient!
If you're looking for a high budget film with famous actors and the greatest special effects, you shouldn't watch this movie.
The characters are stupid and all over the place, the snakes are big and ugly, but nothing short of just bad CGI and the plot is definitely B-Movie material, but why did I enjoy the so- called "sequel" as much as I did?
There are cliché situations, stereotypical actions and the least bit suspenseful snake kills but in all fairness, I did not expect much to begin with.The thing with Anacondas is, if you liked the movie Anaconda, which has nothing to do with this film aside from the snakes in question, you will be entertained with this film for all the same reasons, except with this one you will know what you are getting into.
In all fairness to just liking it for it's mediocrity, the acting is very decent for such a film, and I believe there are some moments where the cinematography is quite catching; the characters, somewhat involving, but then something usually comes along to remind you that you are watching an overlooked monster snake flick for all the reasons the other ones have.
So when the group's vessel ("The Bloody Mary") is submerged after taking a tumble over a waterfall, they elect to continue in search of the fatal flower, and one-by-one die regretting that decision.Entertaining if not altogether cogent follow-up to the J-Lo enhanced action-horror "Anaconda", that spawned a glut of 'big snake' movies for a decade thereafter.
"Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid" might as well have the first word of its title excised, as very little of the movie has anything to do with the 30-40 (or more)-foot-long, tongue-flickers that brought people to the theater and to the DVD rental store (which is where you should go if having an interest in this flick).
There are a couple of attack sequences in the film (corny, not exhilarating like in the 1997 original film) but most of it concerns a bunch of stick-figure characters wallowing through the jungles, making sarcastic remarks, whining to each other, and repeating the three words that form the acronym OMG.As such, "Anacondas" is worth a few good laughs at the beginning and a few cheap thrills at the end, but there is very little in between to make it enjoyable, even in the B-movie, made-for-television manner that it is constructed.
That's how little the anacondas really have to do with the picture.One really gets the impression this was a TV movie; not merely because of the story values, but because of the surprisingly lackluster effects used for the giant snakes.
This movie is extremely well made for it's budget.The waterfall scene was great how you were in the boat when it went over,i got a chill in the back of my neck.The snakes did seem a bit large but it goes with the storyline.The acting was great and i enjoyed every bit of the movie.The first attack was awesome and i thought it was really cool.This movie is quite scary and i love the bits when you see just the end of the Anaconda those bits freaked me out.i think that everyone who enjoyed the first Anaconda movie will enjoy this movie even more.I would also like to comment on how i read someone elses comment and it said 'since when do anacondas have teeth'anacondas do have teeth or how else are they going to grab there prey and they also need to bite down and hold it..
Instead, they end up encountering a bunch of deadly giant snakes protecting their prize.Anacondas is a fun movie to watch as long as you have your brain turned off.
Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid is a very good film that has a good cast which includes Johnny Messner, KaDee Strickland, Karl Yune, Morris Chestnut, Matthew Marsden, Nicholas Gonzalez, Eugene Byrd, Salli Richardson, and Andy Anderson.
Anaconda (1997) was undoubtedly a dumb creature feature, but for what it was it was ultimately harmless take your brain out entertainment.All these years later the franchise has popped up on my watchlist so it's time to binge it's three sequels.The Hunt for the Blood Orchid was certainly not the best of starts, but considering the subject matter it also could have been a lot worse.When a corporation learns of an elusive orchid with potential fountain of youth like properties a party ventures into the jungles to harvest them while they're still in bloom.
Of course while there they run foul of our giant anacondas.It's highly cliched, very predictible but because they played it so safe they both sacrificed any chance of a decent film yet also prevented a bad one.The lack of budget shows, the cgi in most places is pretty weak and the only notable cast member was the multi talented Morris Chestnut and he isn't even the movies lead.For what it is it's relatively passable, it's dumb, it's flawed, but it's a movie about a giant anaconda so you bring it on yourself if you go in with high expectations I suppose.The Good:Some great shotsMorris ChestnutThe Bad:SFX are more miss than hitComedic relief character is more annoying than funnyVery cliched stuffThings I Learnt From This Movie:Capuchin monkeys just make everything betterThe creators have never actually seen an anaconda before.
Marketed as a sequel to the B-movie Anaconda, this picture is actually a movie with a completely different plot and story, where a scientific expedition goes on a quest to Borneo to find a flower called the Blood Orchid, which creates longevity.
However, along the way, they became face to face with man-eating giant snakes.Unlike the previous film, there is a little more plot or story to the movie, which elaborates on the hunt for the red orchid and the expedition's journey through the jungle/swamp.
The story has the spirit of jungle films like Tarzan and King Kong.The team is multi-ethnic with a good assortment of characters: likable (the boat captain and the blond), unlikable (the Brit), catty (the Latino girl), funny (the secondary black dude) and everything in between.
I'm not talking about nudity or sleaze; I'm just saying that their beauty could have been better captured on film.BOTTOM LINE: If you're in the mood for jungle adventure in the spirit of Tarzan, King Kong, Rambo and Apocalypse Now you can't go wrong with "Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid." It's not quite on par with "Anaconda" because it lacks that movie's palpable slow-build tension and a menacing character on the level of Jon Voight's shady snake hunter.
It's really almost a shame, because the explanation given in the film for the ridiculously large snakes actually sounds downright logical(then again, I *was* watching this at the time I heard it, my expectations and sense of criticism may, by that point, have been effectively dulled).
The reference to the far superior "there's a dangerous creature out there" film(the title of which you can find in Movie Connections, or by watching the film, I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't managed to sit through enough of this crap to see that bit) was probably not a good idea, because it just helps to remind one how sorry an excuse this is for one such film(and I haven't actually watched the other film, nor do I intend to, nor am I particularly interested in this kind of films).
Anacondas is the second of the anaconda films,but is not a sequel to the original.it is a stand alone film,and a fairly decent effort.there are no cast members from the original film.the film take s a more serious tone than its predecessor with no campy elements.The action scenes are much more plentiful and intense.and instead of just one anaconda,there are several,hence the title.there is an ensemble cast,which are all competent,given the material.there an eclectic character mix here ranging from the likable to the not so likable and the completely hate inspiring.the motivations of the characters are well fleshed out,always a good thing.the film itself delves into the territory of implausibility at times,but there would be no movie otherwise.Entertaining,fast paced with some thrilling sequences,combine to make Anacondas a worthwhile experience.just don't expect anything deep.
I say that the first Anaconda movie is definitely a lot better than it's so-so sequel, Hunt for the Blood Orchid.
The plot is coherent, the actors are attractive and capable, the gratuitous killing is kept at a very moderate level (unlike in most movies of this type), and the production values are actually pretty good (unlike in the first Anaconda flick, which was abominably bad in every way, story, production, acting; the works).So I think it is totally unjust for this movie to have so many "1" ratings.
`Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid' is the best bad movie of the summer.
The characters in this one aren't bad, they we're written fairly well, I liked the boat captain and at least a couple of the scientist, in movies like this you know at least one of them goes bad.The Anacondas in this are kinda cool since the film-makers didn't use
The acting is typical monster horror acting but no one particular stands out they all act as well as each other.The storyline actually makes sense and while it's painfully predictable it's a guilty pleasure as it's one of those Freddy vs Jason flicks where it's so bad it's good.This was made simply for fun i don't think anyone expected to receive even an MTV Movie award let alone an Oscar.It's just a fun flick there to entertain the teen market and it successfully does.It has gory deaths,sex appeal,tough guys,big creepy monstrous snakes,and an altogether adrenaline rush that keeps you wondering "Who's gonna die next"?This movie knows it's a popcorn flick and unlike the first Anaconda doesn't take itself too seriously.This movie is bad but not in the way that Alone In The Dark,or Son Of The Mask was bad more in the way that Frankenfish,and Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter were bad.Not as good as Jaws,Deep Rising,or Deep Blue Sea but fun and a good bit of entertainment none the less.
They are on a boat with a guy you seems to be somewhat of a wash up.They travel up a river in Borneo to find a rare orchid which could make people live longer and all of them filthy rich.Then things start to go wrong we begin to see their true nature (just like in life).What lets this movie down is the snakes are less interesting than the first movie, plus the ending is a little dull.
If ever a film did not need a sequel, it was Anaconda, an appallingly bad monster movie, which, despite a star-studded cast, managed to raise more laughs than scares.
In the first movie the visual effects were good but the snake didn't really look like a real Anaconda.
The original movie has an abysmal plot full of holes, extremely unrealistic characters, horribly bad acting and not that good special effects.