5/5 THE GOLD STANDARD
  by B. Lafave (lakeland , fl)
i could not possibly begin to describe the pleasures of this magnificently hilarious and profoundly entertaining film . i therefore defer to ROGER EBERT and his web site . reading is believing . best picture of its' decade hands down . and the oscar goes to.....JON VOIGHT . spectacular .

3/5 Bad Movie,Good Blu-Ray
  by Sebastian Sanjurjo (Miami FL)
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R5YCLKBAQRKE1

3/5 This river's a dangerous place, Anaconda a big snake lives there...
  by Craig Edwards (By the sea in NC)
Anaconda A lot of critics tripped over themselves trying to point out that this is "Jaws up a river." Ha! They missed it! It's actually a thinly disguised remake of The Creature from the Black Lagoon, with a few plot twists tossed in. A documentary film crew heads up a South American river system to track down one of those lost tribes we hear a lot about in movies like this. Along the way they rescue shady guy Jon Voight, who proceeds to manipulate the crew into taking him up a tributary he wants to explore for some strange reason. Eventually, the ship's crew find themselves menaced by a huge anaconda snake, which Voight is determined to capture for the huge financial rewards it will bring. But will anyone survive long enough to cash in? This isn't a bad movie, really, just kind of by-the-numbers. The actors are adequate, with the main liability being the digital effects used to bring the snake to life. When it is represented by an animatronic model it looks okay, but as soon as the camera widens out and the snake goes into digital mode it looks phony as heck. But the movie zips along at a good clip, and would serve to entertain on a rainy afternoon. Just don't expect too much,and you should be satisfied. Also starring Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Kari Wuhrer, Owen Wilson, and Eric Stoltz.

3/5 Anaconda - Blu-ray Info
  by LGANS316 (Tokyo Japan)
Version: U.S.A / Sony / Region Free
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
MPEG-4 AVC BD-50 / AACS
Running time: 1:29:20
Movie size: 26,765,709,312 bytes
Disc size: 28,910,183,026 bytes
Total bit rate: 39.95 Mbps
Average video bit rate: 25.77 Mbps

Dolby TrueHD Audio English 2917 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 2917 kbps / 24-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)
Dolby TrueHD Audio French 1849 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1849 kbps / 16-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps)
Dolby TrueHD Audio Portuguese 1841 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1841 kbps / 16-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps)
Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps

Subtitles: English (SDH), English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Number of chapters: 16

#Extras: None
#BD-Live enabled

2/5 Blu-ray: A barebones Blu-ray release, no special features, picture quality lacks detail, audio is a positive!
  by Dennis A. Amith (kndy) (California)
In 1997, a film based on one of the largest snakes in the world was made to a horror film. Directed by Luis Llosa who has shot many films in Peru, `Anaconda' was a film that was written by Hans Bauer ("Titan A.E") and Jim Cash ("Dick Tracy", "Top Gun" and "Turner & Hooch") and the film despite having many negative reviews, did pretty well in box office receipts, taking in over a $136 million worldwide.

The film would also star talent which would be considered today as top tier names, at the time the film would star singer/actress Jennifer Lopez ("Jersey Girl", "The Wedding Planner", "Maid in Manhattan"), hip hop artist and actor Ice Cube ("xXx: State of the Union", "Menace II Society", "New Jack City"), Jon Voight ("Transformers", "24, "Ali", "Pearl Harbor"), Eric Stoltz ("The Rules of Attraction", "Medium", "Grey's Anatomy"), Jonathan Hyde ("Titanic", "The Mummy"), Owen Wilson ("Cars", "Marley & Me", "Shanghai Knights") and Kahri Wuhrer ("The Air I Breathe", "Spider's Web").

VIDEO & AUDIO:

"Anaconda" is presented in 1080p High Definition (with an aspect ratio of 2:40:1). The film looks good at times (sunlight, outdoor scenes) but then starts to have this soft look in many other areas. Because they are in the middle of the Amazon, I was expecting to see skin pores, grime but it appears this film exhibits some major DNR (Digital Noise Reduction) that prevents the film from being vibrant or alive. The faces look waxy and the film looks to clean and soft for its own good. Overall, picture quality is still much better than the original DVD. There is details you can see from the trees and the boat and the crew's surroundings.

As for the audio, audio for "Anaconda" is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and I have to say that I was very impressed by the amount of audio being utilized during the anaconda and action scenes. Also, a few times where the subwoofer is utilized for the low frequency bass. Great use of panning of audio swishing from left to right and awesome use of ambient sounds from the Amazon forest as I saw a lot of use on my rear (centers) and my front channels. The Amazon forest really does come alive through the soundtrack but I will say that I didn't really hear much coming from my rear (surrounds) via my 7.2 setup. Dialogue is clear and overall, "Anaconda" on Blu-ray's highlight is its audio soundtrack.

As for subtitles, the film is presented in English, English SDH, French, Portuguese and Spanish.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"Anaconda" has no special features but Sony Home Entertainment trailers.

JUDGMENT CALL:

Watching "Anaconda" again, 12 years later, it's surprising to see how many well-known talents were involved in this film (of course, this is earlier work for many of them) and also surprising it was to see John Voight in an action role as hunter and doing a great job playing a villain sporting some major action scenes.

Unfortunately, what the film is lacking is a strong story where characters are not used effectively. Eric Stoltz who I thought would have a big role in the film is pretty much incapacitated throughout the film. And John Voight was like a super soldier who just gets away with too much.

Other talents, especially Ice Cube is not utilized all that well. And of course, the acting was OK. Granted, this film was released back in 1997 and considered early work for a lot of these talents who tend to have found their acting groove years later.

But "Anaconda" is a decent popcorn action/horror flick that does its job of entertaining the viewer. As long as one doesn't come with high expectations, the film does its job to entertain and the Blu-ray release definitely does a great job in bringing the sounds of the Amazon and the anaconda right to your living room. But I do find the barebones release on Blu-ray without any special features to be quite disappointing. It would have been great to hear an audio commentary track or even behind-the-scenes of the making of the film.

Overall, "Anaconda" definitely is much better than its DVD counterpart and for fans of the film, the High Definition transfer may be worth the double dip.