Snakeman

release year: 2005
genre: action/horror
viewing setting: home DVD, 3/31/06

synopsis: On the trail of an anti-aging gene, a research team heads deep into the Amazon, not knowing that the lost tribe with this secret is protected by a gigantic snake-monster.

impressions: It was actually less monster-intensive than I would have thought, because it had some drama and action too. Movies involving a hidden secret deep in the jungle are usually okay in the beginning, but some of them go downhill fast, and others are good through the end. This one falls somewhere toward the better side of the middle. It has plenty of snake victims via a variety of methods (mostly biting but also some acid-spit and crushing.) Things I didn't like: 1) people spotting the snake killing someone and then saying "hey, we'd better go" and surviving because the snake doesn't chase them, 2) bulletproof giant monster (without any armor plating etc. to even try and explain the resistance to gunfire) 3) sudden ending of scenes by the camera fading to black, 4) the idea that the leader of a lost Amazonian tribe can speak English and will trust an outsider. As for the monster, it was some kind of many-headed snake, with one main big head and several other smaller ones...I guess it was a snake-hydra?

something this movie has that no other movie has: A giant many-headed snake.

acting: Stephen Baldwin is half tough guy, half explorer here, and although his acting skills are limited in some ways, he pulls the role off. Jayne Heitmeyer is the female lead, who's arguably more of the protagonist than Baldwin. Larry Day plays a corporate-scientist scumbag, and does it well.

final word: Watchable giant monster movie with a bit more plot than most of this sort.

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