Anaconda - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray SteelBook

It was about 18 months ago that I reviewed the Walmart-exclusive Blu-ray SteelBook release of Anaconda, where I lamented the fact that this film had been treated so poorly on so many different discs over the years, leaving me longing for a 4K disc. With a meta comedy reboot dropping down our theater chimneys this Christmas, Sony is doing the right thing with a little promotional tie-in release of the 1997 original, giving the film a fitting 4K Ultra HD SteelBook release. And since it’s been less than two years between reviews, I don’t see any point in rewriting what I already said so my previous coverage will do. 

In a decade that gave us poisonous spiders, Graboids, and multiple multi-tentacled aquatic terrors, the 1990s were a heck of a decade for Creature Features. As Hollywood started shifting away from practical physical effects for more digital creations, the mid to late 1990s were almost like a last hurrah for the biggest and best beasts in creature effects. You had movies like The Relic, Bats, Starship Troopers, Virus, Lake Placid, and Deep Blue Sea on top of numerous direct-to-video horror flicks all dropping within just a few years. 

Among this glut of content was 1997’s Anaconda. Directed by Luis Llosa, the flick stars a young on the rise Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Owen Wilson, and Kari Wuhrer, with Jon Voight and Eric Stoltz lending the star power. A daffy but entertaining film, it straddles that line between excellent practical effects and weightless, laughably ineffective CGI. One moment, we’re enjoying a prop creature stalking its prey, the next, we have a silver-shiny digital creation gobbling up its target. But, since our story weighs more on the unbelievably ridiculous side of things, the disparate visual effects add to the flavor. 

In case you somehow missed this one, our film opens with crack documentary director Terri Flores (Jennifer Lopez) and her ace cameraman Danny (Ice Cube) getting ready to ship out on the Amazon with anthropologist Dr. Steven Cale (Eric Stoltz) in search of the last remaining lost tribes of the jungle. Don't worry, this doesn't turn into Cannibal Holocaust. With the acclaimed Warren Westridge (Jonathan Hyde) as the on-screen talent and production assistants Gary (Own Wilson) and Denise (Kari Wuhrer), they’re off on a grand adventure and surefire National Geographic Channel glory! But when they pick up the mysterious snake hunter Serone (Jon Voight) tragedy soon strikes the expedition as a gigantic murderous anaconda (the smooth soulful voice of Frank Welker) starts picking off the crew one by one. 

In the grand scheme of things, no one is going to accuse Anaconda of being a great film, but it’s a damned entertaining one. Made on a $45 million budget, director Luis Llosa’s creature feature overcame poor reviews and proved to be a modest global hit. A big enough hit to spawn a slew of imitators, indirect spinoffs, and sequels. Effectively Jaws on the Amazon, the film lumbers from one daffy setpiece to the next with the thinnest of plots tying the show together. As the suspense increases, so too does the overuse of weightless CGI. The snake’s first big kill is a pretty exciting practical effect blended with a little CGI to really sell the scaly critter’s ability to kill a grown man. By the end, though, the thing is zipping through the set at whip-crack speeds, devouring our cast left and right, only stopping long enough to vomit up Jon Voight before moving on to its next meal. 

And speaking of our cast, talk about a fun bunch of personalities. We have Jennifer Lopez before she really hit big in films and as a recording artist. Ice Cube when he was steadily moving into more movies after the success of Friday. Owen Wilson was just a rising character actor, and Kari Wuhrer was just starting to edge her way out of late-night Skinemax flicks and into mainstream movies. For some comedic personality, Jonathan Hyde stayed true to the obnoxious know-it-all role he perfected with The Mummy. Eric Stoltz is fine as the arrogant know-it-all leader but he's quickly sidelined and naps his way through 3/4 of the film. The real star is Jon Voight and his accent. Alongside Heat and U-Turn, Anaconda was part of this weird trilogy of Voight appearances when he was as gnarly, unattractive, and unappealing as possible, and he really leans into the role. If you haven’t seen this movie, let’s just say Voight made choices with his performance, and he delivered the 110% effort.  Upon learning Frank Welker did the “voice” of the anaconda, I can’t help but hear an asthmatic Megatron anytime that snake makes a sound.

Far from terrible but yards away from amazing, Anaconda is just one of a long line of entertaining turn-your-brain-off creature features from the ‘90s. Maybe if the production had taken the “less is more” route and minimized the CGI or greatly obscured it, the film might have been better off. As it is, it’s a crowd howler. Entertaining from start to finish, there’s never a dull moment. If you’re watching with a group of friends, take a shot every time Voight makes a creepy squinty sneer. If you’ve been around the block with this one a few times, snag the Rifftrax! 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
Anaconda sheds its old Blu-ray skin for a brand new single-disc 4K UHD + Digital SteelBook release. That’s right, no Blu-ray is included. At a guess, it may be because Millcreek may still hold the 1080p licence rights. But that’s a guess. No bother, it’s not like any of those old 1080p discs had anything on them of note to make them even worth including here. The film is pressed on a BD100 disc and rests inside a stylish, slithery, snaky design. I’m just grateful it wasn’t that artwor with the visages of Lopez, Cube, and Voight hovering in the sky above the river, like the film was some sort of dippy drama about a girl who learns to ride a horse along the Amazon or something. This actually looks pretty cool! The disc loads to a static-image main menu with standard navigation options, with bonus features on the right side of the screen.

May as well cue the Titanic old lady meme because it feels like it’s been 84 years f waiting for a quality home video release of Anaconda. The first DVD wasn’t amazing. The first Blu-ray was hardly an upgrade, and the two MillCreek releases were even worse. Finally, as the film slithers onto 2160p Dolby Vision, Anaconda actually looks appealingly cinematic on home video. Since it wasn’t much of a contest to start, it’s quite easy to say this is the best the film has looked on disc. Immediately, fine details spark to life. Facial features, the small design notes in the rivar boat, the impressive animatronic snake, and the lush foliage of the Amazon River are all on display. Image depth is also a notable improvement. Film grain is appropriately cinematic, only ever appearing slightly noisy or even a little intrusive around those optical plates for the CGI creature shots. And speaking of the CGI, I’m rather shocked to say they don’t look terrible in higher resolution. I mean, those CG shots aren’t amazing; they’ve always looked a bit weightless and dopey, but with that high bitrate and HDR, they hold strong for a film from 1997. 

And speaking of the Dolby Vision grade, it’s a beauty. The image offers all of the color, contrast, and black level highlights you want to see from a release like this. Skin tones are healthy and human while allowing the bright primaries to stand out nicely. Black levels are nice and inky, for a change, and shadows are especially improved, resulting in a more dimensional image. Whites are nice and brilliant without unslightly blooming or looking too hot. Front to back, this is quite honestly better than I’d expected or even hoped for. Granted, expectations were low considering past discs, but this release is a welcome upgrade.

On the audio side of the scheme, Anaconda attacks our home theater setups with a delicious Dolby Atmos track and a strong DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix. While the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is a stronger, more impactful experience than the very old Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix from 2009, it plays very similarly. Flipping discs, effects placement seemed the same, but I didn't have to crank my levels with this new disc. I always felt that old 2009 audio was decent but a bit weak and needed to hit the volume higher than necessary.

So this new DTS is a good track, but I have to give kudos to the Atmos as the more engaging and exciting experience. Along the hemisphere channels, the spread is lively, letting key sound effects slither and wiggle through the front/center, side, and rear channels of the soundscape. Frank Welker's hissing and howling make for some lively imaging! Even in the quieter, so-called "character-driven" moments, there's plenty of activity to keep that sense of immersion alive. Height channels tend to carry some incidentals and spatial effects, but for key action sequences and big events, there's quite a bit of notable overhead activity. Explosions, snakes hissing, the big fireball finale get a little more coverage in the overheads. I would have loved for this track to restore Danny Trejo’s real voice, as the dubbing is hilariously out of place for that weathered puss of his; otherwise, the dialogue is clean and clear. Randly Edleman’s score is well-appointed, letting those creepy low notes add to the LFE rumble. If you’re so equipped, the Atmos is the easy win.

Not to leave things with just great A/V, Sony vomits out a Voight-full of extra features. Previous discs had nothing much of note until last year’s SteelBook Blu-ray. But this is a welcome upgrade all around. At the top of the pack, we have an engaging commentary from genre expert Scott Harrison. Returning from that SteelBook last year is the conversation with director Luis Llosa, along with a little sitdown with co-writer Hans Bauer. More interesting to some will be the almost twelve minutes of deleted/extended scenes, curiously presented in 1.85:1, that offer some more character depth; however, it’s not exactly revelatory material. A dinner sequence is interesting, but it doesn’t really break new ground that wasn’t already traveled in some fashion or other or revealed more effectively later. 

• Audio Commentary featuring Scott Harrison
• There’s a Devil Inside Everyone: Directing Anaconda (HD 19:04)
• A Perfect Killing Machine: Writing Anaconda (HD 9:20)
• Deleted/Extended Scenes: (HD 11:52 Total)
• The Expedition Assembles (no dialog)
• Westridge’s Complaints
• Restless Monkeys
• Dinner Conversation
• Mating Rituals
• Domestic Trailer (HD 1:52)
• International Trailer (HD 1:19)

Anaconda is not some kind of misunderstood cinematic masterpiece; it’s just a hell of a lot of fun! Critics hated it, but people showed up delivering a hefty global box office haul, adding fuel for Jenifer Lopez’s and Ice Cube’s careers while letting Jon Voight chew the scenery (until he gets chewed up at least). Director Luis Llosa delivered a grand 1990s creature feature adventure that remains a fan favorite nearly 30 years later. Now, as we soon approach the meta reboot comedy this Christmas, the best and original Anaconda finally arrives on 4K UHD - and with a hell of an A/V presentation to boot! The Dolby Vision transfer is a vast improvement, while the Atmos track is an exciting upgrade all its own. Then you come to the solid selection of new extra features to snack on when the main show is over, making for a worthwhile upgrade.

The flick is a hoot, the disc is great so I gotta call it what it is - Highly Recommended