DVD Review by David Blackwell

DETAILS: 97 minutes, Making of featurette, deleted scenes, previews

STUDIO: Columbia/ Screen Gems

RELEASE DATE: 12-21-2004

ANALYSIS: The sequel is one of those movies you love or you hate. It is an enjoyable B-movie carried by the characters and the situations they get into. I do think the Anacondas should have been seen less for the early part of the movie (following the axiom that less is more). I enjoyed the movie on DVD as much as I enjoyed it in the theater. KaDee Strickland is the girl my heart swoons for. Her presence is a stand out in ANACONDAS.

Movie Review: 

https://enterline2.tripod.com/anacondas.html

VIDEO/AUDIO: Two versions of the movie are on the DVD- a 1.33:1 Full Frame and 2.40:1 Anamorphic Widescreen. Colors and blacks are good and image detail is sharp, but some grain does pop up in any scene that takes place during the night.

You can hear the movie in English or French 5.1 Dolby Digital with the option of English or French subtitles. Dialogue is clear, but the rest of the audio is just OK. Music comes through loud and the sound effects are OK, but they lack punch.

SPECIAL FEATURES: There is a Making of featurette on the movie called SPECIAL EFFECTS TOOLBOX: CREATING ANACONDAS that talks about the CGI snakes (and animatronic snakes), digital effects in the movie, and the design of the Bloody Mary boat. Interviews with various members of the cast and crew, and various behind-the-scenes footage (and blue screen footage/ rough animation) is featured in this featurette. I wish the movie had a commentary track with the director and cast because I feel there is more to say about the movie than what is seen in the featurette.

Nine minutes of deleted scenes are included on the DVD. Most scenes except one don't add anything to the movie. the one scene of interest is a long scene where the scientists have the Captain of the Bloody Mary stop the boat to pick up a rare flower and the Captain discovers an anaconda skin. The Previews are lame. You get previews for HITCH, ARE WE THERE YET?, and BREAKIN' THE RULES. Alas we have no trailer for AANACONDAS or ANACONDA. Very disappointing.

FINAL ANALYSIS: Columbia has done a good job with the transfer. I do wish they done a better job with the extras with not including the trailer for the movie. The DVD will probably do decent rental business and some DVD sales due to the name of ANACONDAS.

this DVD Review is (c)12-9-2004 David Blackwell and this review cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com and look for additional content (and site updates) at http://www.livejournal.com/users/enterlinemedia