The new Anaconda movie is super fun, delightfully ridiculous & definitely not a remake [review]
I was totally not betting on Anaconda being one of my favourites of 2025.
A meta-sequel to the 1997 creature-feature starring Ice Cube and J Lo, best remembered for Jon Voight’s accent and a very fake snake?
Starring Paul Rudd and Jack Black?
On paper, this sounded like the kind of reboot Hollywood makes when it’s truly out of ideas.
And yet, against all odds, Anaconda slithers its way into being one of the most unexpectedly funny, unhinged, and oddly sincere movies of the year.
(Sony Pictures)
Directed by Tom Gormican and co-written with Kevin Etten (the duo behind The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent), Anaconda knows exactly what it is: a self-aware horror-comedy that doesn’t just poke fun at its own existence, but fully embraces the absurdity of remaking a movie nobody ever took that seriously in the first place.
Doug (Jack Black) and Griff (Paul Rudd) are two middle-aged friends spiralling through a classic midlife crisis.
Doug earns a living making wedding videos (or wedding films, as he so often corrects us) while Griff moved to LA to make it as an actor, but never quite made it.
Claire (Thandiwe Newton) and Kenny (Steve Zahn) complete the tight-knit squad of four — childhood friends who grew up making home movies purely out of passion and joy.
Shortly after the gang reunites for Doug’s birthday, Griff suddenly reappears with life-changing news: he’s somehow secured the rights to Anaconda.
With childhood dreams reignited and common sense abandoned, the group decides to remake their favourite movie… despite having no real budget, a half-baked plan, and absolutely no business being in the Amazon rainforest.
(Sony Pictures)
Doug confidently declares they’ll need $2.5 million to make the movie. They secured a loan of $9,800.
Naturally, this does not stop them.
Their initial plan involves filming with a real and slightly unimpressive anaconda, welcoming Brazilian superstar Selton Mello as snake handler Santiago.
They also rope in Ana (Daniela Melchior) along their quest who turns out to give them a plot twist most low-budget remakes would kill for.
When Santiago’s snake suffered an untimely death (it’s a very funny scene, I promise), the crew had to venture deeper into the jungle in search of a replacement… only to stumble into the kind of mythological, absurdly massive anaconda that we’re used to seeing in the previous films.
But unlike the 1997 original, Anaconda (2025) refuses to take itself seriously for even a second.
(Sony Pictures)
The tone is openly comedic and the humour is broad, dumb, and relentless — and it works because the cast commits fully.
Jack Black and Paul Rudd are dynamite together, I couldn’t get enough of them. Selton Mello emerges as a genuine scene-stealer, while the ensemble rounds out the group with surprising warmth.
Some familiar faces make a comeback too, with Ice Cube making a cameo. I do wish they’d kept this a secret instead of revealing it in the trailers, though.
This is one of those movies that you just know everyone involved had an absolute blast making.
(Sony Pictures)
Director Tom Gormican said that it was hard to get Black, Rudd, and Zahn to “stop having fun long enough to shoot the movie.”
That joy is palpable onscreen, and it’s a big reason why the film works as well as it does. Most of us couldn’t hold back our laughter at the screening I attended.
Simple comedies have been in short supply in cinema releases lately, and this film feels like a reminder of how powerful and communal shared laughter can be.
My sincere hope is that audiences have fun. It’s a strange time in the world right now, and this film for me is an escape to another place with characters I hope you’ll love. It’s a big-hearted joyride through the jungle that will thrill you and make you laugh in equal parts.
Tom Gormican.
Beneath the gags, jump scares, and escalating absurdity, Anaconda is also a love letter to cinema itself.
(Sony Pictures)
It’s about childhood friendships, the magic of making movies, and that stubborn belief that art is worth chasing even when it’s wildly impractical.
The film repeatedly foregrounds that childlike wonder: the home movies the characters made as kids, the dream of telling stories together, and the thrill of actually living out those fantasies — even when they go spectacularly wrong.
The giant anaconda is secondary. The real heart of the movie lies in the friendship between these characters and their shared love of filmmaking.
As Kenny puts it, “the snake was like, a metaphor… for our lives at that moment.”
Very deep stuff.
Anaconda opens in cinemas nationwide on 25 December 2025.
