‘Anaconda’ Is as Silly and Hilarious as One Would Hope a from a Giant Snake Remake

Anaconda, a 1997 movie that’s a bit of a cult classic but certainly not a widely beloved gem, may seem like an odd choice to get a remake. If I had to guess at what spurred Sony to make it, I think they looked at the success of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, decided they needed more “jungle comedy with Jack Black,” and saw that they owned the rights to this giant snake movie. The smart move wasn’t trying to create another creature feature built for thrills, but a bombastic comedy, bringing in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent director Tom Gormican to add a knack for Hollywood satire, and then letting Black shine alongside Paul Rudd, Steve Zahn, and Thandiwe Newton. Although the film has a bit of an episodic structure where the scenes feel more like extended bits, that never stops the movie from ranging from moderately amusing to outright hilarious as our characters bumble in the jungle.

Childhood friends Doug (Black) and Griff (Rudd) both had Hollywood dreams as kids, but they faded when confronted with the hardships of adulthood. Doug is directing wedding videos that stifle his creativity, and Griff can’t hack it as an actor in Los Angeles. A discouraged Griff returns home to Buffalo for Doug’s birthday, where he reunites with fellow childhood pals Kenny (Zahn) and Claire (Newton). He then tells the group that he’s managed to snag the rights to 1997’s Anaconda, and that they should remake it, shooting a movie together like they used to when they were kids. They head to the Amazon on an extremely low budget, pair up with snake handler Santiago (Selton Mello), and start filming. Unfortunately, their paths cross with Ana (Daniela Melchoir), who has her own problems and makes the shoot more complicated. And that’s all before you get to the giant snake that happens to be roaming around.

The pairing of Black and Rudd is, unsurprisingly, comic gold, but the movie consciously plays against their personas, letting them both get laughs while not merely returning them to earlier roles. It’s Doug who is the responsible one with the family, while Griff is the reckless dreamer. It’s a nice little twist where both actors get to step outside the kinds of their typical comic roles and show that they don’t need to rely on character tropes like the screw-up or the straight-man-loosening-up to be instantly endearing. There’s a reason why these guys have been beloved since the '90s, and while the comedy genre has had to find a way to live inside action blockbusters (as it does here), Black and Rudd’s appeal continues to shine.

It also helps that Anaconda is not a sacred calf of cinema that must be treated tenderly. It’s a weird film with outsized performances (especially from Jon Voight), and a basic premise of “I hope this giant snake doesn’t eat us.” That provides a lot of narrative leeway without having to worry about “What will the fans think?” where reboots constantly have to pause and prove their bona fides with overwrought Easter eggs. Instead, the new Anacondathrives in part because it’s about this group of friends getting back together, but also because it’s so gleeful about poking fun at Hollywood. As they work on the script, Doug and Griff wonder what the theme of their giant snake movie should be, and when they land on “intergenerational trauma,” it’s the kind of delightful self-awareness that provides a nice marker of where Hollywood screenwriting is at the moment. 

Trying to “remake” Anaconda is the scaffolding for outlandish bits, and where the movie shines is in seeing how far Gormican and the script he co-wrote with Kevin Etten will push the comedy of a scene, and there are some truly inspired bits where you’re already laughing at how far things have gone, only for the movie to push the silliness even further. I won’t spoil anything, but shy of The Naked Gun and Friendship, Anaconda is probably the hardest I’ve laughed at a movie this year.

Gormican and his cast have made the most unassuming picture you’d want out of a remake of a relatively forgotten 1997 action-thriller. The film revels in shedding any pretension and gleefully pokes fun at artifice while never sacrificing the emotional core between these characters. It doesn’t hurt that, for a remake of a '90s movie, three-quarters of the lead cast have been beloved comic actors since that decade, and while I wish there was a bit more for the talented Newton to do, she still acquits herself well to the film’s zany vibe. But for a film that throws Black, Rudd, and Zahn together for the first time (other films featured two of the three, but not this complete trio of endearing performers), it lands the comic punches you’re hoping for with the signature blend of sweetness and strangeness that you’ve seen in their previous works.

While it’s likely that in 28 years the new Anaconda will probably be remembered as well as the 1997 Anaconda, that doesn’t really matter for the enjoyment it provides now. In a season filled with serious awards contenders or massive blockbusters, Gormican’s film hits the sweet spot of giving holiday audiences a fun diversion that won’t tax your emotional bandwidth or your patience. Hollywood will always be awash in remakes (or reboots or re-imaginings or whatever you want to call them), and Anaconda is the right way to go about it, where you’re not worried about “honoring the original” with leaden homage but hitting the core of what made the original appeal. In this case, it’s another ridiculous movie about a ridiculously big snake. The key difference is that this time, everyone is in on the joke.

Anaconda opens in theaters on Wednesday, December 24^th.