Anaconda Review

To some, the original Anaconda is a 90s cult classic. To others, it’s a so bad, it’s good guilty pleasure. To me, it’s just a bad movie. Not awful, but as weird as it sounds, Anaconda wasn’t quite over-the-top enough for my taste. I wanted more unintentional laughs. The movie really only had a handful. There are more laughs to be found in this 2025 reboot, although that was the filmmakers’ intent. This is a straight-up comedy from Sony that just so happens to bear the Anaconda name. It sounds like an unconventional approach to a revival, but it worked out well for 21 Jump Street, which also had Ice Cube in common.

Remember Be Kind Rewind, where Jack Black played one half of a duo remaking old films on a home movie budget? Anaconda has a similar setup, with Black starring as Doug, an aspiring director who finds himself shooting wedding videos. He insists that they still count as films. Paul Rudd’s Griff isn’t doing much better, only booking a few episodes of S.W.A.T. since moving to L.A. Reuniting with Doug, Griff claims that he’s acquired the rights to Anaconda and wants to reboot it. Doug fails to ask several obvious questions about how Griff supposedly got the rights. Then again, this is a comedic version of a giant snake movie. Are we really expecting the characters to think logically?

Doug and Griff bring along their friends, Kenny (Steve Zahn) and Claire (Thandiwe Newton), to help with the production. They also wrangle up a snake handler (Selton Mello), who relates more to reptiles than people. Also aboard their boat is a woman named Ana (Daniela Melchior), who is running from something. Soon enough, the whole gang is running from something, as there are deadlier and bigger snakes in these waters than anticipated. Twenty years after King Kong, Black finds himself back in a jungle, directing a movie that gets a little too real. It’s a bit like Tropic Thunder, even if Anaconda lacks the biting Hollywood satire of that film.

What Anaconda does have is a pair of fun performances from Black and Rudd, whose chemistry carries most of the comedic set pieces. Zahn also gets several laughs as the production’s flaky crew member, although the writers clearly don’t know how to write for female characters. There isn’t much to Claire outside of being the token woman. She’s also apparently the token love interest, despite there being minimal romantic tension between her and Griff. Newton is a great actress, but she lacks the comedic chops to bring much energy to this underwritten role.

As far as foursomes in the jungle that feature Jack Black go, this might not be Jumanji. Even so, Black, Pudd, and a few supporting players (not to mention a couple of cameos) inject just enough laughs to keep Anaconda afloat. This is an A+ idea for a reboot. Even if the execution is closer to a B- (borderline C+), the moments in Anaconda that do work are too funny to pass up. It isn’t high art. It knows it isn’t, but everyone looks like they’re having fun. At least that’s more than we can say about the Anaconda sequels, which admittedly remain unseen by me.