Anaconda, 2025.
Directed by Tom Gormican.
Starring Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Daniela Melchior, Thandiwe Newton, Steve Zahn, Ione Skye, Selton Mello, Jack Waters, Sebastian Sero, Aimee Bah, Romeo Ellard, Reagan George, Ben Lawson and Diego Arnary.
SYNOPSIS:
A group of friends are going through a mid-life crisis. They decide to remake a favorite movie from their youth but encounter unexpected events when they enter the jungle.
Hollywood is creatively bankrupt, as a character directly acknowledges in co-writer/director Tom Gormican’s Anaconda. And although the title is clearly lifted from the Sony franchise that became a guilty pleasure for some through its 1997 first installment, starring Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube, there is hesitation to use the term ‘remake’. For those who follow movies closely, the involvement of Tom Gormican (who previously directed the Nicolas Cage meta vehicle The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent) may have raised suspicions that something was up before the goofy trailer dropped, giving away the game. It was only a matter of time before Hollywood started spoofing its own lack of imagination and obsession with reboots/legacy sequels.
If it has come to this, remaking Anaconda, then it is, at the very least, slightly amusing that Sony has decided to use the IP as a way in to mocking the industry as a group of friends (played by Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Thandiwe Newton, and Steve Zahn) decide to remake their favorite film. Admittedly, the film is also a somewhat genius choice for this concept; it’s not beloved enough to come across as sacrilegious, and it has just enough of a cult following that it could believably be someone out there’s favorite movie. Then there is also the subversion of turning what was once horror into a comedy, inevitably blending the two when things go awry.
From screenwriting jokes taking aim at the industry’s current obnoxious fascination with themes of intergenerational trauma (or the belief that every single movie needs to be “about something”) to intentionally poor acting while shooting and jabs at unorthodox methods of getting into character, there is no shortage of them regarding the creative process. However, something is off and largely unfunny once Tom Gormican (writing alongside Kevin Etten) drops these friends into the Amazon to remake the movie, which is for a variety of reasons, ranging from unfulfilling lives to reconnecting and recapturing their youth, making homemade monster movies as children.
Jack Black’s Doug McAllister is aware that he has carved out a decent living for himself, making wedding videos for couples, though it’s not scratching his itch for horror. On his birthday, best friend Ronald ‘Griff’ Griffen Jr. (Paul Rudd) returns from Los Angeles, where he has recently been fired from a minor supporting role on a junk TV series, also frustrated with his career. That is when he reveals to Doug and their other friends, the woefully directionless Claire (Thandiwe Newton) and sobriety-struggling videographer Trent (Steve Zahn), that he has come into the franchise rights of Anaconda. Now is the time to chase their dreams, and the snake is a metaphor for the obstacles in their way.
The first concerning sign that the filmmakers might not be able to pull this off is how quickly a montage kicks in once the friend group connects with an eccentric snake wrangler (Selton Mello) and boating guide (Daniela Melchior, revealed in the prologue to be playing a character here with other motives). It’s not that there aren’t many jokes watching this DIY crew go to work, but that some of them flail, eliciting no reaction (an extended conversation about how to do a headbutt properly falls flat). Griff and Claire, who had once dated, begin to rekindle that flame while filming their scenes (he gets to play a hero), but it’s neither romantic nor funny. Perhaps even worse, I’m not sure even the filmmakers know what it’s supposed to be.
The madcap energy is restrained until the third act, which also comes with a fairly clever twist. However, it’s also one that mostly serves to undercut the very concept of this film. Nevertheless, once the danger strikes and, as one character puts it, they find themselves in Anaconda for real, the fusion of meta humor and thrills is elevated into a more appropriately absurd scenario that, for the most part, is entertaining enough.
Somewhere between novel idea, remake, and legacy sequel, Anaconda is a breath of fresh air in some respects, although it might only be a matter of time before Hollywood runs this concept into the ground, too. There is hesitation in calling this a good film per se, but at the very least, it’s trying something different, even if it doesn’t always succeed.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
