Product Description

The worlds first international highest security prison has been built deep in the antarctic escape proof. However what the prisoners dont know is that a giant and deadly man-eating snake that has laid dormant for centuries has been awakened by a human presence. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 06/28/2005 Starring: Dean Cain Mark Sheppard Run time: 95 minutes Rating: R Director: Phillip Roth

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58124 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2002-05-21
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 95 minutes

From the Back Cover
It is the dawn of the new millennium, and the world's first international highest security prison, designed to house some of the most dangerous criminals in history has been built deep in the Antarctic. Designated only as "Faculty Number 1", the prison is considered entirely escape proof and those incarcerated there thought they were all alone-until now. What they are about to discover is that the icy tundra houses more that the deadly criminals at Facility Number 1-a giant and deadly man eating snaked that has been dormant for centuries has been awakened by the human presence, and has voracious appetite for human flesh. As the prehistoric slaughter begins, everyone in the prison must fight to escape the paralyzing grip of the deadly "Boa".

Customer Reviews

Even the Name is Wrong
It is hard to imagine a monster movie that goes so wrong in so many different ways. BOA would have the viewer believe that a ten million year old huge reptilian-like snake could emerge from a nitrogen induced suspended animation to wreak havoc on the inhabitants of an Antarctic prison. Now I have no problem accepting the scientific implausibility of its sleeping for ten million years, after all, was the cloning of JURASSIC PARK any less believable? The problem with audience involvement is that the cast and crew show little respect for anyone's intelligence. The criminal residents of the prison were supposed to be the 'worst of the worst.' Yet, as I got to know them as individuals, they seemed a rather likable bunch. In fact, one of them, a nuclear missle smuggler, correctly identified himself as a political prisoner, a not inaccurate label since he intended to use that missle in defense of his homeland of Chechnya. Further, when he was released rather unwillingly by the warden to help fight the snake, it is he rather than the titular hero (Dean Cain) who emerges as the go to guy who has guns and guts. Cain, by contrast, seems wimpy and decidely uneager to tackle the snake, which, by the way, no one refers to as a boa. As for the snake itself, you would think that the advertised monster of any monster film would get plenty of screen time. This snake is seen slithering around mostly in the shadows and only parts of its anatomy are revealed. Rarely does the viewer get the snake's full monty. Much of the dialogue is predictably banal and heavy-handedly foreshadowing. When one of the criminals, an attractive IRA woman, tells Cain that because of her Irish fear of snakes, he should shoot her if the snake should capture her, then you know that is precisely what will happen. Most of the movie borrows shamelessly from other 'big snake' movies like ANACONDA and PYTHON. I have no problem with that either so long as the director does something novel with the borrowing. Not so in BOA. The best part was the grand finale, which involved the one who should have played the hero, the Chechnya missile smuggler. Here the director did something right. Rather than rip off snake movies, he rips off AIR FORCE ONE with the smuggler taking the Gary Oldman role. I am still trying to decide if the climax were dramatic or purposefully laughable. And this might be the underlying problem of BOA: modest laughter or even more modest shuddering.

Not that bad (a LOT better than Python)
I don't know why many people did not like this film. Its true, the snake gets very little screen time and is kept in the shadows most of the time, but the plot and the sequence of the movie were very good in my opinion. At least the snake in this movie doesn't change in size like the one in python. I'm also aware that the film doesn't deserve 4 stars. In my opinion it deserves 3 but I do not think that the overall average rating of 2.5 stars is fair. The only of the many flaws that bugged me was the change of size of the snake's blade in the tail. It ranged from being as big as half a person to being as small as a kitchen knife. But for people who have seen this type of movies many times it should not be much of a problem to see this. Recommend this product for people who do not get bugged by some minor details.

Not too terrible, if you like low-budget sci-fi
This is about a giant snake that terrorizes the staff and prisoners (all 4 of them) at the world's most high-security prison, located in Antarctica. If you're a fan of low budget movies where "suspension of disbelief" is pretty much synonymous with "suspension of all thought processes", you may get a kick out of this. The acting isn't especially bad, the characters are basically likable, and the snake is bargain basement CGI. The sets and overall atmosphere are really the best part of the movie. The action moves along at a more or less acceptable pace, and the climax is so laughably stupid that you'll probably be telling people at work about it the next day.

Overall, not an especially good B-movie, but considering some of the utter garbage that's out there in the direct-to-video market these days, you could do much, much worse.