Anaconda

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.