Anaconda (2025) - Review

Rating: 3 out of 5

IF YOU’RE prepared to lean into the silliness, then Tom Gormican’s self-aware redo of cult 1997 creature feature Anaconda is an amiable enough diversion.

Where the original - starting Jon Voight, Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube and Owen Wilson (among many others) - was a straight up B-movie homage to the likes of Piranha and Jaws, this adds comedy and meta elements, riffing on the pointlessness of remakes and the risk averse nature of Hollywood, while simultaneously extolling the virtues of holding onto your dreams.

The horror elements are dialled down despite some tense moments, while the absurdity increases with every passing moment. But given the cast is led by Jack Black, Paul Rudd and Steve Zahn alongside Thandiwe Newton, you shouldn’t really be expecting anything less - even though Gormican maintained a better mix of genres with his previous film, the Nicolas Cage meta-comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

Black stars as aspiring film-maker Doug, now leading a humdrum existence as a wedding filmmaker but still harbouring ambitions of breaking onto the big screen. Rudd is his childhood best friend, Griff, now a struggling actor desperate for one last shot.

When the pair reunites for Doug’s birthday, Griff claims to have the rights to the original Anaconda movie and persuades Doug - along with fellow friends Kenny (Zahn) and Claire (Newton) - to head to Brazil’s rainforest to remake it… whereupon they hook up with eccentric snake handler Santiago (Selton Mello) and mysterious boat captain Ana (Daniela Melchior) and head up river to the heart of darkness.

The ensuing film works as well as it does because of the chemistry that exists between its core stars. Black and Rudd are great together, while Zahn dials up the kookiness to make his own mark as the unreliable recovering alcoholic.

Rudd also displays a nice line in narcissistic tendencies, leaning into some of the more self-serving elements of his struggling actor, much in the same way as he did in Only Murders In The Building. But the shots at Hollywood movie making are fairly well judged and mildly amusing - even if they lack the bite of, say, The Studio or Wonder Man.

Indeed, it’s not so much the satire or one-liners that grab the biggest laughs, but a couple of big sight gags: such as Rudd’s close encounter with a ‘friendly snake’ leading to an unexpected outcome or Black being mistaken for dead and left as snake bait while wearing a dead pig and a squirrel for extra spice.

Black leans into the over the top nature of such moments and carries them off with aplomb. And, to be honest, the film could have used a couple more of them (although a couple of surprise cameos from original cast members also hit the spot).

Similarly, the film could also have used more of the snake itself, either in a comedic vein or a horror one. The beast has very little presence and therefore lacks much menace - unlike the original, which genuinely creeped you out.

Rather than amplify the threat posed by it, or how it kills its prey (as Voight did to memorably chilling effect in the original), here it’s that Voight speech that’s referenced as opposed to anything more haunting. It gives the film a blunt edge and it’s not long before you realise that none of the principal players are really in peril.

If anything, this Anaconda is so good natured that its tonal shifts sometimes jar, which is where the quality of the performances really come into bail it out.

Black, Rudd and company are so sweet natured and well meaning, and so keen to realise their dreams, that you can’t help but keep rooting for them. They even keep their banter and bickering the right side of annoying.

It means that Anaconda adds up to an easy slice of viewing that entertains on its own limited terms without being in any way memorable.

Certificate: 12A

Running time: 100mins