Anaconda Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		2.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.5

Anaconda Blu-ray Movie Review

Mill Creek has released 1997's Jennifer Lopez/Ice Cube man eating snake movie 'Anaconda' to Blu-ray. The film was previously released by Sony in 2009 as a featureless disc and by Mill Creek in 2014. The notable change between this disc and the Sony disc is Mill Creek dropping a multichannel lossless soundtrack in favor of a two-channel Dolby Digital presentation. Video qualities are similar but Sony's offering is superior. No extras are included.

Anaconda Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of Anaconda is a step down from the decade-old Sony transfer. Colors are noticeably less firm, the most obvious difference between the two. There's an inherent stability to Sony's image missing on the Mill Creek version, an absence of tonal depth and finesse that is quite obvious both upon watching the disc alone and when comparing it after the fact. The movie was never a bastion of intense, bold colors, but the Mill Creek disc struggles to offer any sort of tangible depth to jungle greens. Skin tones appear pasty and light. The entire thing is devoid of the improved saturation evident with the Sony presentation. The image is not a major step down from Sony, texturally, and it's likely both were sourced from the same master. However, grain management is not as organic on the Mill Creek disc and there's a feel for slightly fuzzy textures on this release. Fortunately, compression artifacts are not visible in abundance, though some lower light shots certainly reveal some issues. This Blu-ray is watchable but it's a clear tick or two behind the aging Sony transfer.

Anaconda Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Anaconda slithers onto Blu-ray with a pedestrian and paltry Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. The presentation is acceptable at the very bottom of the scale insofar as it's adequately detailed and does offer satisfactory width along the front right and left speakers. It's also not short on action, with various scenes delivering a number of crunching, cracking sound effects as the title creature tears through the boat, beginning with an attack on an unsuspecting, terrified, and eventually suicidal Danny Trejo and continuing on as the beast aims to make a meal of the intrepid film crew. Unfortunately, clarity is lacking and the track seems to try and compensate by increasing volume rather than searching for finesse or folding in surround channels. Dense and heavy rainfall delivers healthy detail and a fair sense of immersion thanks to enough volume and front width to partially compensate for the absence of more opportunity for true stage saturation. Music is in a similar boat, offering adequate clarity and detail and front side stretch but remaining far away from lifelike transparency. Dialogue does image towards the middle and offers basic clarity for the duration.

Note that this version is also lacking several additional language and subtitle options which are available on the Sony disc.

Anaconda Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of Anaconda contains no supplemental content. The Sony disc was similarly bare-bones but did include a few trailers for other films. The main menu screen offers only a "Play Movie" button. A DVD copy of the film is included but a digital code is not. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

Anaconda Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of Anaconda can't keep up with the Sony offering. Video is a step or two behind and lackluster at best. Audio is a major downgrade from TrueHD 5.1 on the Sony disc to lossy Dolby Digital here. No extras are included. This is very watchable; it's in no way terrible but it's also inferior to the Sony disc which is still available on Amazon and, at time of writing, costs only a few dollars more. It's the better option.