The Anaconda Reboot Proves Why The Original Is An Untouchable Cult Classic
by Ryan Scott · /FilmRemakes or reboots are not, nor have they ever been, inherently bad. Some of the greatest movies of all time are continuations of beloved franchises. Just look at "Mad Max: Fury Road." It happens. It can happen. So nobody should blame Sony for thinking there might be a worthwhile reason to reboot "Anaconda." It doesn't feel like some unimpeachable classic. That said, the new comedic, meta take on the giant creature feature serves as proof that there is something truly untouchable about that original movie.
Let's be clear, this isn't a review of director Tom Gormican's new "Anacanoda" movie. /Film's Ethan Anderton already handled that with an expert hand. It's not meant to be a takedown of that movie. It's not about getting into spoiler-filled territory about what does or doesn't work about it. More than anything, it's about highlighting, nearly 30 years later, what's surprisingly special about the original '90s creature feature classic that somehow, with time, only seems to become more special. It's something delightfully anomalous.
Director Luis Llosa's take seemed like little more than a monster movie blockbuster, hoping to carve a name for itself alongside genre staples. "Jaws with a snake" was probably thrown around in the pitch room. It was a hit that spawned a series of lesser-than sequels, including the bonkers low-budget "Lake Placid" vs. Anaconda." It would be hard for anybody at the time to guess that it would merit passionate critical reappraisal by way of comparing it to a reboot that was built on the premise that people of a certain age absolutely love the movie.
All the same, here we are. The reboot, if anything, has only served to highlight what makes the original a beloved cult classic in its own right.
Anaconda is an admirably earnest '90s monster movie
1997's "Anaconda" is a lot of things. It came at a time after "Jurassic Park" proved that nothing was impossible thanks to the advancements of CGI. Even so, Sony and Llosa used an absolutely unruly, expensive animatronic snake to bring the titular beast to life, in addition to some very '90s CGI shots. It's a blend of the two, as some of the best things often are. Is this one of the best things? My heart says yes, but my mind says probably not. I digress.
It's a movie with a stacked, bizarre ensemble that includes rapper Ice Cube, another musical icon in Jennifer Lopez, a brief cameo from a younger Danny Trejo, an up-and-coming Owen Wilson, could-have-been "Back to the Future" star Eric Stoltz, and a wackadoo performance for the ages from Jon Voight. What it all represents is an attempt to make an honest-to-goodness, blockbuster monster movie.
Even though it seems like it at times, in no small part thanks to Voight's insane portrayal of snake hunter Paul Serone, the movie isn't winking and nodding at the camera like "Sharknado." It's not trying to be delightfully absurd like "Deep Blue Sea." It's not making the best of next to no resources like "Humanoids from the Deep."
Instead, what we have is a truly earnest attempt to make a fun, scary, large-scale monster movie for the masses. It's undoubtedly a more unhinged and unserious movie than anyone set out to make in the first place, but any humor, any off-the-rails moments weren't built into it at the outset. The earnestness is this movie's secret sauce all these years later. With all of that said, Sony was probably right not to do a straight-up remake of "Anaconda."
The Anaconda reboot is an admirable swing that still can't get there
They didn't or even attempt a legacy sequel like "Jurassic World." Rather, they had the presence of mind to know that they had to try something out of the box. There's no realistic way to recapture that very specific lightning in that very specific bottle again, at least not on purpose. For what it's worth, there's a pretty bonkers Chinese remake of "Anaconda" from 2024, but that's another beast entirely.
Rather than tell a story about documentary filmmakers trying to find a missing tribe and instead stumbling upon a big ass deadly snake, Gormican opts to tell a meta tale involving a group of friends led by Doug (Jack Black) and Griff (Paul Rudd) who set out to remake "Anaconda" on a shoestring budget, as it was a beloved favorite from their youth. It's a fun, interesting idea.
The resulting movie is extremely meta — perhaps maybe too much for its own good at times. It calls to mind great movies like "Tropic Thunder," with the whole "movie within a movie" concept at play. I'm not trying to lower one to raise the other, but it's fair to say Gormican's movie doesn't quite rise to that level, at times feeling like it's a hat on a hat. It's trying admirably to do its own thing with reverence for the original. That sincere love for the source material is welcome.
What it does more than anything else, though, is highlight just how tough it is to reboot something so singular. The cast is very good. The idea is good. It's got the right idea, and yet, what one is left with above all else is even more reverence for what came before.
"Anaconda" is in theaters now.