Midway through this remake of Anaconda, our leads encounter another film crew within the movie who explain they are also remaking Anaconda, with a character from that crew saying outloud, “I know. No new ideas,” before that crew heads off into the distance (only to be destroyed by a giant snake shortly after). At its best, this 2025 meta-reboot of 1997’s delightfully silly creature feature understands how to have fun by way of goofing all over the idea of remaking a popular non-classic film like Anaconda. Coming from director Tom Gormican, whose previous film, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, already found a way to dive into Nicolas Cage’s career from a meta-angle, here’s a movie with a larger scope and broader comedy that may not fully capitalize on the wonder of its premise, but does have enough jokes to make the buy-in of seeing a new Anaconda with this cast worthwhile.
The film stars Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Steve Zahn, and Thandiwe Newton as friends who used to make movies together as kids. They’ve somewhat grown apart, with Rudd’s Griff being the only one who actually went to Hollywood to try to become an actor. Growing disillusioned, Griff gets an idea to obtain the rights to one of his favorite movies, Anaconda, and get his friends to come with him on an adventure to the Amazon, where they will remake the film themselves. Troubles arise for many reasons, one of which is that the snake handler (Selton Mello) must replace his prized pet with something deadlier. Another problem concerns their boat captain (Daniela Melchior), who may not be entirely on the level.
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To get one issue out of the way, it’s seeing yet another comedy resort to an additional layer involving a criminal element and guns being drawn at one point or another. Not that there isn’t a way to make that work (afterall, the original film featured a bizarro great performance from Jon Voight in a similar position), but it feels odd to see a movie that already features a giant snake and stakes surrounding whether or not these intrepid yet unqualified filmmakers can actually make their movie, and yet have another setup to raise the stakes an unnecessary high level. It’s also just not where the film shines, whether in its comedy or its action.
Naturally, the real joy comes from seeing Rudd and Black together—two comedic actors who can bring out the funny in many different ways. The plot of this movie won me over pretty instantly, so I had at least some hope of getting a film that not only builds on the standard type of humor these two can provide but also a clever send-up of remake culture in general. Black, in particular, plays an aspiring director-turned wedding videographer who speaks to the film’s more inside-baseball sensibilities, so seeing the opportunity to get a purposeful, terrible remake of Anaconda had the potential to pay off.
It’s fortunate that the movie delivers as many laughs as it does. As much as the film does falter in being a better representation of how to really spoof Hollywood more effectively, thanks to the strains put on the plot to get this thing going, there are plenty of funny things happening at a fairly consistent level. While not a spot-on parody, seeing these personalties trigger memories of Hearts of Darkness or the battles between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski on Fitzcarraldo at its best (though never quite rising to the heights of something like IFC’s Documentary Now) does suggest there are some underlying ideas at work. That said, having Rudd dress like Dr. Alan Grant from the original Jurassic Park is also enough to make me smile.
The ensemble as a whole is also clearly having a good time. The film is fortunately not just a riff-fest, so having solid character actors Zahn and Newton allows for the right kind of lived-in character work in what are, ostensibly, the typical underwritten supporting roles. As a result, there’s something of a team effort here, and while the film goes through its familiar rhythms in terms of plotting, that kind of chemistry means there’s something of a heart at the center of all of this, allowing for a sense of sweetness and a theme of friendship to make itself present, as thin and ridiculous as it all may be.
Again, this is all admittedly quite silly. This is a sort of film where Ione Skye, as Black’s Doug’s wife and the mother of their child, lets him know she fully supports an impromptu trip to Brazil, because, of course, she does. It’s also a movie where just going to Brazil to film an Anaconda movie on a budget of under $10,000 makes sense to people who have at least some knowledge of the industry. But does any of this really matter? Ideally, the nonsense would be countered by the real threat of the film – the actual anaconda they have to contend with.
Anyone familiar with the original film should know that, as much as it is a creature feature, unless one has an intense fear of snakes, the movie wasn’t really scary. Exciting at times, yes, but not exactly a movie made up of terror (and certainly not the case with its PG-13 rating). This comedically inclined reboot is no different, which should be evident from the get-go. The snake is more a means to an end, a CG creation with no real personality. Given the film’s approach, it’s not necessarily disappointing. At the same time, given how little I was into the criminal plot surrounding the giant snake, I would have preferred more time fleshing out our central monstrous character.
Looking at this whole enterprise, Anaconda ultimately wins me over because of how many laughs it lands, and how much the film feels like more than just Sony execs throwing darts at a board and seeing what sticks. Yes, there’s a sharper screenplay that could have been deployed to really go after the nature of a film like this, not unlike Sony’s own 21 Jump Street. However, with mild digs at itself, I still found enough laughs squeezed out of this premise to make my thoughts on Anaconda end up on the side of these adventurers, dim as they may be.
Anaconda opens on December 25, 2025.
