Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid

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Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid ★★ 2004 (PG-13)

An enjoyably trashy quasisequel to the 1997 flick finds even more (and bigger) snakes to swallow the generally no-name cast. A pharmaceutical company sponsors a scientific expedition along a Borneo river to hunt for the rare title flower, which may extend life and youth. There's the usual mix of characters: fearless riverboat captain (Messner), arrogant scientist (Marsden), computer geek (Bryd), babe (Strickland), etc., and the standard situations: ramshackle boat, dense jungle, hungry snakes, and a really clever monkey for a little variety. The director and cast handle their parts efficiently and they know enough not to take it too seriously. Neither should you. 93m/C VHS, DVD, UMD . US Johnny Messner, KaDee Strickland, Matthew Marsden, Eugene Byrd, Denis Arndt, Morris Chestnut, Salli Richardson, Nicholas Gonzalez; D: Dwight Little; W: Michael Miner, John Claflin, Daniel Zelman, Edward Neumeier; C: Stephen Windon; M: Nerida Tyson-Chew.