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The cast of "Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid" travels through the jungles of Borneo, att

“Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid”

Directed by Dwight H. Little

Columbia Pictures

Sometimes sequels work because everything just comes together. (Think “Alien” and “Alien 2.”) Sometimes sequels don’t work because they were bad the first time and only can get worse. Such is the case with director Dwight H. Little’s (who developed his sequel directing ability with such mediocre hits as “Free Willy 2” and “Halloween 4”) new sequel thriller “Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid.” In “Anacondas,” a pharmaceutical company has sent a new group of scientists (apparently all the good actors from the first film were eaten) to the Borneo jungles to find a rare bush on which there is an orchid that only blooms every seven years. This orchid, of course, promises to be the next fountain of youth. But – and here comes the scary part – this orchid is apparently guarded by huge snakes that get their incredible size and powers from this very same orchid – and they are all over the place. When these greedy scientists meet up with the huge snakes, the snakes begin stalking and devouring them. It makes you wonder what these huge snakes were eating before the hapless scientists wandered into their food chain. The 1997 original, “Anaconda,” although not great had a few things going for it. The original cast consisted of Jon Voigt, Ice Cube, Jennifer Lopez and Eric Stoltz, and there was a certain tension created among the characters who had been hijacked by the insane hunter in a mission to capture the world’s most deadly snake. But that same rising suspense can’t be said about “Anacondas.” About halfway through the film I almost entirely forgot what the characters were even doing wandering around the jungle, let alone caring about why they were there in the first place. In the sequel, none of the original surviving cast members could have been paid enough to make appearances, and instead it appears that the whole budget was blown on making the already huge snakes look even more huge. So huge in fact that sometimes you can’t even really tell what it is you are looking at on the screen, which really takes away from that on-edge feel contained in the first film. What the first film was able to achieve with smaller snakes, “Anacondas” is ultimately unable to do, teaching us all a lesson in jungle reptile scare tactics: Sometimes size doesn’t matter. The only real suspense created by the movie comes from wondering which one of the unlucky scientists will be killed off first. Unfortunately, it ultimately doesn’t matter much because nothing in the film offers any reason to care about any of the characters anyway. Even worse is that the kid-friendly PG-13 rating makes it even less realistic for a number of different reasons. The language is toned down so much that it’s really hard to believe a few more cuss words wouldn’t sneak past your lips if you were being chased down by a hoard of agitated supersnakes. Even worse, we don’t see any of the actual killing by the snakes. Not that any level of gore and violence would have made “Anacondas” any better, but it might have added a touch of reality that would have allowed the audience to connect with the film’s events that much more. Sure, there are a few scary moments, and the cast is really good looking, even if they are slowly being picked off one by one by the man-eating carnivorous snakes. But chances are this film won’t lead these actors to the same success J. Lo and Voigt have had. Save your money and watch the Discovery Channel. At least you can be on the edge of your seat watching Steve Irwin collect reptiles. -Justin Scott