Photo - Courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment
Dir: Luis Llosa (Sniper, Anaconda, The Specialist)
Cast: Craig Sheffer, Sandra Bullock, Juan Fernández, Judith Chapman, Ramsey Ross, Jorge Garcia-Bustemante, Reynaldo Arenas
USA/Peru, 1993
Reason to see: I kind of have a soft spot for early 90's movies
Fire On the Amazon stars Craig Sheffer (Some Kind of Wonderful, "One Tree Hill") as R.J., a rather brash photojournalist in Bolivia and while covering the local environmental battles he meets activist Alyssa, played by Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side, The Proposal), who is working on a peaceful journey for justice and truth.
After settling into Fire On the Amazon, I started to feel like it felt familiar. I hadn't seen it before but there was a certain je ne sais quoi that reminded me of another film. It took me a while to figure it out, but I came to the realization that it reminded me of Anaconda, which low and behold is also from director Luis Llosa. Although on the surface that connection seems more like a disconnection (here we are following activists and Anaconda is about a huge snake), but there really is a certain similarity of beautiful people who are out of their element, but searching for the truth in a beautiful location where there is differing opinions and actions on how to deal with justice. I found this connection comforting, and the environmental angle although certainly still prevalent, was very popular around the time of the films release.
It's a film that I think is best taken exactly for what it is: a light action/adventure set against a gorgeous backdrop with beautiful people. It's interesting that even with the environmental angle, it doesn't feel like that much of a message film, as it feels like that's more central to get the conflict going. It's not the meatiest film, but I liked how it really is what it is and doesn't pretend to be something else. It's got very clear characters & conflicts along with some action, adventure and raciness to boot. From that perspective, it's was quite entertaining.
DVD Extras:
- Trailer
& Amazon.com
Shannon's Overall View:
I enjoyed it
I'll watch it again
I'd recommend it to fans of 90's action/adventure
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© Shannon Ridler, 2011
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