It’s hard to imagine anyone, anywhere getting too excited about a 2025 Anaconda reboot. The 1997 original, about a doomed documentary film crew pursued by a giant snake that can coil around a man until his crushed demise, is best known for a scene in which the serpent swallows and spits up a winking Jon Voight. Who could improve upon such perfection? Despite the length of its snake, the series’ cultural tail was short. It could barely manage a single theatrical sequel before retreating to the direct-to-video shelf to square off against the gators of Lake Placid. It’s hardly a revered series, which actually makes it a worthwhile launching pad for a Jack Black and Paul Rudd two-hander about a couple of dopes remaking the thing, “indie style.”
Playing lifelong friends stuck in a rut, Black and Rudd have endless commitment to a stupid idea, taking simple beats to ridiculous heights for a delightfully dim take on remake culture that neither takes itself seriously nor has much to say about the state of cinema. Anaconda isn’t here to teach anyone about the craft or business of filmmaking. Devoid of venom and with shaved-down fangs, Anaconda slithers along, making just enough sense and generating just enough energy to move the plot forward and keep the jokes coming.
Director and co-writer Tom Gormican, working with his Unbearable Weight Of Massive Genius co-writer, Kevin Etten, knows Anaconda is a bit shallow. As a Hollywood satire, it’s not aiming for the specificity of The Studio or repeating Black’s turn in Tropic Thunder. Gormican and Etten coil around familiar, surface-level industry issues the audience: Too many reboots about trauma, not enough new ideas. But the duo has a better handle on their postmodern comedy this time around, recognizing that “high-concept” doesn’t have to mean “complicated.” All that’s really important is they get Black and Rudd on the boat and in front of the snake.
Black plays Doug, an ambitious wedding videographer who rarely gets to play to his horror-movie tastes. Once an aspiring filmmaker, Doug traded his Tinseltown dreams for a B+ life in Buffalo and let his best friend Griff (Rudd) make a run at Hollywood alone. Griff aimed for the stars and landed a few episodes on S.W.A.T., followed by years of rejection. Fired from his first role in some time, Griff returns home for Doug’s birthday, bringing along a copy of their homemade, high-school creature feature, The Quatch, and rekindling some of that creative passion.
Here’s where the movie slams the “just go with it” button. Revisiting their VHS heyday reminds Griff that—oh, right—he acquired the rights to Anaconda and suggests remaking it just like the good old days. It doesn’t take much convincing. To its credit, Anaconda follows the funniest, silliest, and dumbest route in any given scene, offering just enough grounding to the jokes without grinding the story to a halt. Rather than spending too much time fighting the inevitable, Doug agrees to write and direct this reimagining and enlists the rest of their childhood film crew, Claire (Thandiwe Newton) and Kenny (Steve Zahn), to play Spielberg one more time.
Anaconda doesn’t dig too deeply into the logic of its plot or the interiority of its characters. Black is the closest thing the movie has to a straight man, but he rarely finds himself blocking characters from following their worst impulses. Zahn, who made a career out of the broad comedic roles that have become all too rare in recent years, revels in playing with his old Saving Silverman buddy again, activating a well-honed brain-dead look in his eyes and delighting in the frustration of poor decision-making. Rudd, too, abandons his everyman persona to play the Dumber to Black’s Dumb. Where the film falters is in finding a game for Newton to play. Though never reduced to a scold or mere eye candy, Claire pays for the trip and co-stars opposite Griff. Yet, amid the illegal gold miners subplot and Griff and Doug’s bickering over the movie’s direction, Newton doesn’t get a comedic moment to shine—even overshadowed by the productions’ scene-stealing Brazilian snake handler (Selton Mello) and mysterious, underwritten riverboat captain (Daniela Melchior).
Though it dutifully honors the original’s beats, Anaconda does not aspire to much as an action or horror movie. The snake attacks are there, offering amiable, lively set pieces that rightfully emphasize laughs over thrills, all while the violence and mayhem are kept to a light PG-13 rumble. It’s all the better for it. The few Anaconda-heads in the audience will get a kick out of the cameos, but this iteration is more attuned to Black’s recently acquired Mario and Minecraft audience of 13-year-olds, who will surely enjoy a scene where Black begs Zahn to piss on him.
Anaconda may be getting the benefit of the doubt here because of how few studio comedies make it to theaters. In another era, it might easily have gotten lost in a wave of post-modern updates that included The Brady Bunch and Starsky & Hutch. Its plot offers few surprises, but its simple foundations and character motivations give Rudd and Black so much room to play that it’s an amiable time. The two stars keep the energy and charisma in strong supply, while their film uses low expectations to its advantage, knowing that a good comedy doesn’t need to squeeze too hard.
Director: Tom Gormican
Writer: Tom Gormican, Kevin Etten
Starring: Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton, Daniela Melchior, Selton Mello
Release Date: December 25, 2025
