We loved this movie when it came out, have seen it many times over the years, and re-watched it again yesterday over 22 years later. It still holds up as a really good film. Sean brings all his wit, charm, and pragmatism honed over his career, while Lorraine has her NY attitude and the right moxie for the role she is playing. While Sean can correctly portray any job, Lorraine's acting was really spot on to convey both the academic and cultural differences of her role. The actual scenes among the trees and canopies were some of the best photography work in a jungle, predating and helping build interest in the huge fad of zip lines that have since flourished. The story itself is about discovery and redemption, differences in cultures, and how they interact. The soundtrack was really unique for its time, easily identified for the South American influences, and is still one of the best to listen to independent of the movie.

While this film not a hugely profound experience, and has been sanitised for a mainstream audience, it is nevertheless enjoyable and entertaining. Action auteur John McTiernan tries his hand at a different genre, and for the most part, actually succeeds very well. He crafts an easy-going, stylish and witty film that while mainly dialogue driven is engrossing and well-paced right up to the films conclusion. However, it is the conclusion that is the main weakness of the film. The film sets everything up plot wise very well, and I was expecting something more spectacular regarding the films climax. There was a great opportunity to have a much greater set piece as the audience never really sees that actual impact of the series of events that take place in the film's final act play out – too much is implied by jumping events forward to the aftermath of a major event. Filmed on location in the Mexican jungle (doubling for the Amazon) McTiernan gets some very good performances from the Native American actors. While Lorraine Bracco in my view came in for too much criticism. Initially she does not seem to have a grip on her character and the performance comes off as forced – and is dangerously close to wooden. However, as the film goes along her character evolves well and gradually becomes more likable and warm. What probably complicates matters is she is up against the trenchant screen presence that is Sean Connery. Yet again he absolutely dominates the film by sheer charisma, and his flawed Robert Campbell character is truly engaging and carries the picture – but also makes Bracco's performance appear second rate for a large chunk of the film. However, Bracco getting a Razzie nomination was just an excuse for a bit of celebrity bashing. Director McTiernan is ably supported by excellent technical contributions, most notable Don McAlpine's excellent photography, but particularly Jerry Goldsmith's outstanding score, which elevates the material and creates a terrific atmosphere. It is particularly effective in heightening the moments of tension towards the film's climax.Overall, an enjoyable film that is marred only by Bracco's uneven performance at the start of the film, and a rushed in unsatisfying climax.

All I could think about while watching this hot mess was the review I was going to write about it. In no particular order, you've got: Lorraine Bracco running around the Amazon in mom jeans, screaming like a banshee (of course she and Sean Connery scream at each other from the first time they meet; that's how we know they will fall in love and get married at the end of the movie); Sean Connery is is eccentric--how do we know? He's got a ponytail. Cool! Weird lively Caribbean music playing in the background, to illustrate the movie is taking place in the Amazon rain forest, I guess. Well, heck, if there's a story beyond that it was lost on me. For every time a woman in a movie screams, "Whoa. . .whoa! Whoa!!!", I knock a star off. If that's the best dialogue the writers can come up with, I don't hold out a lot of hope that the movie is going to improve along the way.

Okay, there's this weird scientist, Sean Connery, who's hidden himself away in the tropical rainforest of South America and has been incommunicado for years. A "foundation" sends down a youngish, award-winning scientist, played by Lorraine Bracco, to monitor his behavior, find out what's up, and decide whether or not to cut off his funding. Lots of barbed exchanges here between the old curmudgeon and the independent new woman. Some comedy too as he slips her a psychedelic that cures headaches. As it develops, Connery, with Bracco's help, finds the source of a cure for lymphoma in the top terrace of the rainforest. Alas, before he can harvest enough of the stuff to explore the possibility of its being synthesized, some big industrial operation plows a road through the forest and destroys the trees in which the stuff grows. Bittersweet ending. Humankind is hoist by its own petard by what some ecologists call a "progress trap." As compensation the old fox and the young feminist become friends. It's a bad trade.Between 1960 and 1990 one fifth of the world's rainforest was lost. In Brazil, where this film is supposedly set, the Amazon rainforest between 1991 (when the film was shot) and the year 2000 has lost between 415 and 587 square kilometers, an area about twice the size of Portugal. The tragedy is not that the forest is gone. Who cares about wood? It's the consequences, many of them falling into the category of "unknown unknowns" that counts. WOULD a biochemist of Sean Connery's persistence and quirkiness have found a way of combating lymphoma (or anything else)? We're not going to find out now. Among the "known known" consequences, the deforestation has eliminated entire species of plants and animals at an alarming rate, including one primate. (Humans are primates too.) The little message behind the story is, of course, fashionable and politically correct, which for some people makes it wrong. Lorraine Bracco, with her bulky figure and oddly handsome features, seems a likable woman. You can tell because in all of her performances she seems to be playing herself. She can be loud and stubborn but one never senses genuine contempt behind her shouting. I wouldn't mind having an argument with her. It might be amusing. Sean Connery plays a role that must by now be familiar to him, almost shopworn, and he does his schtick well. There appears to be a lot of half-naked Guaranis running around, acting as translators and comic relief, but this is really a two-person picture.At one point Bracco is tripping on this native stuff and having a hell of a good time. She babbles on about marketing it for adults, putting sugar in it, and calling it by some pronounceable name. I wish that she'd have accomplished that because unless we recognize a progress trap when we see one coming, we may need that psychedelic elixir.