Parents' Guide to

Anaconda

Movie PG-13 1997 89 minutes
Anaconda Poster Image

Common Sense Media Review

Barbara Shulgasser-Parker By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 14+

Scary creature goes after humans; language, violence, peril.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 14+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 13+

Based on 3 parent reviews

age 15+

It was really violent not really for kids.

Anaconda was really innapropriate it is not really PG-13 but it isn't rated R either so its just 15+ like in the middle there was really bad words and a lot of violence there is shooting, blood, and people being eaten but it was NOT SCARY.
age 12+

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (3 ):
Kids say (2 ):

Anaconda is a skillful if hokey horror movie that will seem both familiar and campy. Similar stories have been told many times before, but few have the bemused villainy of an unrestrained Jon Voight playing the crazed snake hunter who will stop at nothing to capture a live 50-foot anaconda for a projected $1 million payday. Voight, channeling a pirate-slash-Colombian drug lord vibe, emanates threat as he chews the scenery with an enthusiasm to match the mechanical snake's single-minded pursuit of homo sapiens tartare (hold the shallots and capers). This guy sneers when he sleeps, and he affects a hilarious accent that's no more identifiable than his murky origins.

Kids armed with some facts may find this a little less scary: It's a rare snake that eats humans. And on the rare occasion of ingesting a large mammal -- and Jon Voight is one large mammal -- snakes generally take a couple weeks off to digest rather than look for more humans. It may also be reassuring to some kids that the kind of reptile that tenaciously pursues a human dessert course immediately after an entrée is also not likely to be found under a bed. For further reassurance, young viewers can remind themselves that, as in Steven Spielberg's shark thriller, Jaws, a mechanical creature was used. Snake-vs-man wrestles are mostly computer-generated. Now considered by some to be a "cult classic," Anaconda was nominated for a Worst Screenplay Golden Raspberry Award and for a Best Horror or Thriller film Saturn Award.

Movie Details

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