Movie review: 'Anaconda' squanders Paul Rudd, Jack Black
by Fred Topel · UPILOS ANGELES, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Turning 1997's Anaconda into a comedy is a clever idea. Unfortunately, 2025's Anaconda, in theaters Thursday, does not have ideas that clever to put in the actual movie.
Jack Black plays Doug, a frustrated wedding videographer with artistic ambitions. Griff (Paul Rudd) is a struggling actor who tries too hard at one-line roles.
Reuniting for Doug's birthday, Griff brings a film they made on VHS as 13-year-olds. Inspired by seeing the original Anaconda poster, Griff suggests Doug and their childhood friends Claire (Thandiwe Newton) and Kenny (Steve Zahn) remake Anaconda themselves.
The premise should be that these idiots encounter a real anaconda and bumble through a jungle adventure. That would be funny.
Unfortunately, the script by Kevin Etten and director Tom Gormican invents more convoluted business before anaconda mayhem even happens. They spend a lot of time on the remake the quartet is making.
The film within the film is not funny enough to pull focus from the snake. Black already starred in a funnier movie about remaking Hollywood films, Be Kind Rewind.
As the remake's stars, Claire and Griff supposedly rekindle their childhood romance, but this subplot is only addressed sporadically and unevenly. In fact, it is resolved only via text at the end of the film.
Friction between Doug and Griff is only revealed when the characters give "behind the scenes" interviews for their eventual DVD. There was ample room in the first act to show their rift without relying on dumped exposition.
It is a missed opportunity to joke about a generation that grew up on movies but never fulfilled their dreams. What should be endearing becomes disjointed and random.
Griff panics in a scene with the snake, which could become a solid premise if the instigator of an Anaconda movie is afraid of snakes. The film does not follow that through either.
When Griff loses the snake they've rented from snake handler Santiago (Selton Mello), that does create a real problem for the group to solve. Still, the film adds another subplot before dealing with it.
Amazon explorer Ana (Daniela Melchior) is on the run from armed militia and hijacks the boat they rented. Ana remains quiet and largely hides on the boat until the movie needs her.
The meta commentary of characters in a reboot discussing a remake of Anaconda only leads to sub-Entourage-level industry inside baseball. The characters discuss I.P. and thematic metaphors, but the jokes only amount to "Can you believe we're really remaking Anaconda? I know, right?"
Jokes about the rights to Anaconda fall flat because Griff says it was based on a book. Nobody thinks Anaconda was an adaptation of a novel, not even idiots in a movie.
There are some inside jokes that fans of the original Ancadonda might enjoy, but they're also all the obvious ones they should have expected. For such an unlikely movie, the film has no genuine surprises.
By the time the amateur filmmakers encounter a wild anaconda, too much of the film has already felt like a loose outline the cast was asked to fill in. Rudd, Black and Zahn are gifted comedians, but even their better bits only call attention to the fact that they're not talking about the anaconda.
Rudd is having fun spoofing a desperate actor, and so is Black playing an excited film lover, but those characterizations don't make the anaconda any funnier. Black was also in Tropic Thunder, a funnier movie about actors who fall into a real jungle adventure.
Kenny takes Santiago's pills so Zahn does standard "I'm so high" schtick. Claire isn't really allowed to be funny.
The snake probably holds up better than 1997 CGI, but sequences with it do not generate suspense. Chases through the jungle seem to be edited randomly, and scenes of Rudd and Black driving a vehicle are blatantly shot in front of green screens.
There was location photography, but it was in Queensland, Australia, not the Amazon.
There are jokes in Anaconda about filming without a finished script. The film itself, however, feels like a joke that was never developed beyond the premise.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
Jack Black, Paul Rudd attend 'Anaconda' premiere
Cast members Paul Rudd (L) and Jack Black attend the world premiere of "Anaconda" at the United Theater in Los Angeles on December 13, 2025. The pair play best friends -- Rudd stars as Ronald "Griff" Griffen Jr. and Black stars as Doug McCallister. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo