Anaconda Kuang Mang Zhi Zai

Having recently watched the last of the official Anaconda films, which was diaboloical, I thought I would watch the 2024 Chinese reimagining of the original Anaconda.

And It's actually not bad. It's not a scene by scene remake, the action is okay and they've changed the story slightly to be more culturally relevant to them but I really dont get the completely over the top caricature male characters in Chinese films. It's a quick 80 minutes though so it doesnt outstay itself.

What they have done very well though are the special effects. It's still not a big budget film but 95% of the time the snakes look like they are actually in the jungle with the humans, they have mass & weight and look really scaly, slimy and three dimensional. Effects are way better than anything the Asylum or similar have done so hats off to them for that.

Before to watch the American remake/reboot later this year, check out this Chinese remake which is just a crazy and fun as the original with even meaner giant snakes. I had a lot of fun with this film and found it entertaining even though it didn't have an Ice Cube and J-Lo. The CGI isn't that bad and I loved the design of the main anaconda. It's also very interesting how the Chinese culture is integrated in the story and makes it different than the original film.

This is a really quality attempt. I would say, it is much better than almost all of the Hollywood attempt on anaconda sofar. Story and snakes are unrealistic, but still have the same or better feeling as the originals were so bad, this is miles ahead of them in terms of CGI and snakes. Story line makes no sense but in terms of snakes and performance, better than any of those came before. Snakes are more snake like. And a small reference to the now you see me as well.

At only 80 minutes, Anaconda (2024) is worth your time if you enjoy giant creature features. However, there's not enough material here to warrant watching it more than once. The film gets off to a hasty start, it's not even clear how many people are on the boat until midpoint through the movie. It's safe to say character development wasn't a priority in this film, the closest we ever get to a character backstory is one of the female characters saying that chocolate reminds her of her late brother. One positive aspect of this film is that the main human villain seems more intimidating than the original's Jon Voight. In the original, I always thought it was embarrassing how the characters let the out-of-shape Voight push them around. This villain is a much more typical tough bad guy.

Ultimately, an Anaconda film will always be judged by the quality of its snake action. This Chinese adaptation does a respectable but flawed job. Midway through the film, I began to think that I had found a hidden gem. The initial snake attack on the boat is as good as the original's best scenes. But in the second half, you realize why the film is only 80 minutes. The action becomes very repetitive with both the main characters and villain somehow escaping death multiple times. The entire second half of the film is basically the characters sitting in a jungle and being used as bait.

Overall, Anaconda is worth having on as background noise for fans of creature features. 5/10.

A re-imagining of the 1997 action-horror film about a crew of documentary filmmakers in search of a giant, deadly snake in the Amazon.

Well doggy, the movie started off pretty good but as soon as we get to the circus folks the flick takes a downward turn and never recovers. It gets rather boring, to be honest.

Maybe it's the thin story-line that requires a lot of useless scenes to pad it's already short running time. Or maybe it's the rather poor directing. Could it be the acting? When we deal with foreign films and subtitles it's always hard to examine the acting because we're reading the writing on the screen.

I will say this, the saving grace and only reason I gave it two stars are the two females and their abundant cleavage. Without those, it's a dud.