GL84
Following a rare discovery in the Amazon, a team of explorers hoping to find a potential fountain-of-youth for their pharmaceutical company finds the area guarded by a monstrous multi-headed snake and must find a way of getting out of the jungle alive.As one of the better Sci-Fi Channel originals, there really is a lot to like here. Among the better qualities here is the fact that for once, the plot-line is pretty credible and creative as the subplot about the search for the tribe in the jungle takes precedence and getting the snake to the background. The atmosphere here is quite nice as the thick, wet rainforest and impenetrable heat allows for a great location to be had to introduce the sake who acts as a guardian spirit for their people, and the little bits featured here gives their society a nice enough grounding to work well for the monster action. As the titular creature, this setup allows for more screen-time for the actors and less for the snake, making his sporadic appearances more effective while losing just a little of that fear. It's a nice gamble that pays off, as there's some solid snake action featured here due to the low number of appearances. There's some great suspense stalking scenes early on as the snake would constantly roar off-screen, the first encounter deep in the jungle that takes place in the dead of night works very nicely as the creepy action is fun with the chaotic scene being a blast and the later scenes at the campsite are really fun. The ending assault on the cave is undoubtedly the highlight, though, as bodies fly in all directions, lots of severed limbs go flying about and there's non-stop action here from the creature appearing during their ceremony and sending everyone scattering and leading to some great chasing throughout the different whirlpools and caves before the big ending here. Alongside the great gory kills and a chilling looking snake, there's enough to like here to hold it up over the film's singular flaw. Despite the fact that it appears to be quite large, the snake is still able to hide undetected in the jungle brush and spring out until it's too late, consistently manages to not only move around unseen it actually sneaks up on people and it's pretty hard to believe that an animal of this snake's size is that sneaky, no matter how familiar with its surroundings. Also, for as great as the snake looks, it's so obviously CGI that it hardly meshes with the actors, and the size of it creates several incredibly distracting scenes and ideas that it really sticks out. However, this is the main problem with the film.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.
TLSmith1138
Most of the movies Sy-Fy does, reek of a fourth grade writing project and abysmal special effects. This movie may have the same problems, but I can't tell. The only way this movie could hold my attention the first time, is because I am absolutely infatuated with Jayne Heitmeyer on here.I have probably seen this stinker a dozen times and I'll watch it a dozen more just because of Ms. Heitmeyer. I can't help it! Love the close ups. Love the way she looks at the camera.In short, I am totally unqualified to judge this movie. Sorry.One of these days I'll edit out everything but her and use it to replace the beautiful sunsets and mountain views we don't get here in Indiana.
capkronos
Lurking in the exotic rain forests of Brazil is a deadly, multi-headed serpent that rips limbs off, squeezes victims to a bloody pulp and swallows others whole. A group of scientists working for a leading pharmaceutical company called Gen-Tec are down that way researching a new drug and end up stranded in monster territory when their helicopter crashes. Along for the ride is a local guide (Stephen Baldwin) who is the son of anthropologists and speaks the obscure native language, a corrupt, bossy jerk who keeps waving his gun at everyone and the token attractive blonde lady doctor (Jayne Heitmeyer) who emerges as the film's strongest character. Gary Hudson spends most of his time on the phone or sitting behind a desk as an exec from the company who actually has the team down for other reasons (and shows up with a machine gun toting commando squad at the very end). There's another mean jungle tribe in the forest (with an English-speaking leader!) that use blowguns, spears, tree limbs, booby traps and arrows against victims, kidnap the leading lady and worship the great Snake God "Naga." Also here is a trek through a crocodile-filled swamp, attacks from tarantulas and smaller serpents, overkill green-tinted snake POV camera-work and a partially insane, blood-painted American from a previous expedition. And it all ends on a weird metaphysical note with the discovery of the fountain of youth and a message about modern day greed and disregard for the sanctity of ancient cultures! The computer special effects on the deadly serpent are pretty lame (especially during the day scenes), but this is still a pretty entertaining fusing of Lost World, adventure and monster movie genres.
lsurefirel
There's not much to say about this movie. It's predictable. In the sense that, there's nothing particularly new about the plot that we haven't seen and some parts are really easy to guess. For instance, you can always be assured that greedy or selfish people will end up eaten. Other than that, I think it generally caters to people who have a penchant for monster/creature movies such as Anacondas, Jurassic Park, Resident Evil, The Host, House of the Dead etc (But not all of these movies are lousy. Some of them have rather redeeming qualities-such as the Host and R. Evil). Or viewers who enjoy seeing people being chased by this things. There's nothing outrightly bad about this movie-just that it seems like a copy of Anacondas-curse of the blood orchid, with variations here and there. I watched this movie for sheer amusement. It's not scary either-since they always give you a visual warning whenever the giant Snake is about to attack by showing you the Snake's point of view which is illuminated in green-which reminds me of Snakes on a plane.