While short on plot and story, Anaconda 2025 provides a funny comedic vehicle for Jack Black and Paul Rudd.
By: Craig Allan
Three and a half stars. See it.
One trope in modern movies and tv shows is the proliferation of the âseriousâ comedy. This is where shows like the rebooted Fresh Prince of Bel Air or the 2017 remake of The Mummy make a serious version of a film or tv show. They seem to put down the original version for being lower because of its comedy focus. I have long wanted a movie to come along that does the reverse: a comedy based on a serious movie. That project has come in the form of Anaconda, a comedic remake of the 1997 campy thriller about an absurdly large snake. While the storyline for Anaconda 2025 is set around a âmovie within the movie,â it feels like they didnât have the budget to fulfill all of the CGI snake-binding glory that they wanted. Anaconda is still a funny movie that takes a serious, yet campy, film and provides something different from the big blockbusters of today.
The movie is full of funny jokes, especially in the beginning. Lines like Kenny Trent (Steve Zahn) saying that he is âBuffalo sober,â where he only drinks beer, wine, and some light liquors. Or an earlier movie that the four made about a mini Sasquatch called âThe Quatchâ, which they edited for classrooms by removing the swearing, making the whole movie a series of bleeps. âThe Quatchâ feels like the kind of production kids who want to seem edgy would do, and itâs a good introduction to this group of friends who had dreams and interests but gave them up for a safer life.
Along with this are the more meta angles of the cast. For example, Black plays a focused director willing to put his entire cast and crew in danger for a movie about a larger-than-normal creature. If this seems familiar, its because he had a similar role in what is arguably his most serious film, playing Carl Denham in Peter Jacksonâs King Kong 20 years earlier. This addition provides some fun meta commentary and actually makes moments like Doug and crew filming the movie after they find the large snake funny, if not a little nonsensical. Absent a Saving Silverman (2001) reunion between Black and Zahn, this movie feels like 2025’s welcome return to the early 2000âs action comedy.
Director Tom Gormican, who co-wrote the film with Kevin Etten, has limited directing experience, which shapes his style. This is his third film after That Awkward Moment (2014), or what I call âWait, Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan were in a really bad romantic comedy,â and the meta Nicolas Cage film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) (UWMT). Specifically with UWMT, the comedy of that movie is very good, but the script has a superfluous plot that derails the story and feels like filler. This problem is especially noticeable in Anacondaâs 99-minute runtime. This is exposed in Anaconda with Ana Almeida (Daniela Melchior), who is on the run in a gold heist plotline. Strangely, her character fades into the background a lot, and when her storyline comes up, it feels like she is just there because they didnât have enough money for all the anaconda effects they wanted, and had to pad the movie with something. While the anaconda effects are good, they are very limited for a film that is supposed to feature a large anaconda attacking people.
Anaconda is not high-brow humour, but for those looking for a smaller, lighter fare, this holiday season, it fits the bill. This is about people making a snake movie about a snake that snakes around the jungle and kills people. P.S. Try not to watch the newest trailer, as there are some sizable spoilers.
