REVIEW: ‘Anaconda’ (2025) Is A Hilarious Ode To The Filmmaking Spirit

Reboots, remakes, or re-imaginings typically fall into two buckets. They’re either crafted with a clear, sometimes overbearing, reverence for their source material or merely exist as uninspired, cash-grabby retreads. Tom Gormican’s self-reflexive Anaconda (2025) is the rare remake that not only falls in the middle of that dubious dichotomy but cheekily knows it too.

In acknowledging and lampooning its role within Hollywood’s increasing insistence on resuscitating established IP, Anaconda (2025) weaponizes its wonderfully irreverent meta-setup—a reboot about filming a reimagining that eventually turns into a dangerous real-life remake—to not only poke fun at the industry’s dwindling originality but also inject a pulse into the mostly lifeless landscape of modern American comedy.

Giddily weaponizing audience expectations, Gormican’s adventure-comedy doubles as a loving, earnest ode to the pursuit of artistic dreams and a foolhardy filmmaking spirit. While undeniably messy and scattershot, Anaconda (2025) brims with set pieces that tow a hilarious line between the absurd and relatable—all the while armed with an endearing but oddball gallery of personalities.

Anaconda (2025) is nothing without its cast, who, for the most part, understand the assignment.

Jack Black stars as Doug McCallister, a wedding videographer who dreams of making a real “film.” Unlike his friend, Griff (Paul Rudd), who made the risky jump to Los Angeles, albeit to little success, Doug played it safe and, now, years later, is unsatisfied with his average existence.

When Griff surprises Doug with the news that he bought the rights to their favourite childhood movie, Anaconda, the two go all-in on making an auteur remake of the 1997 horror film, full of complex themes. After all, as put in one of the film’s greatest punchlines, “Who doesn’t like intergenerational trauma?” Griff and Doug draft a script, book tickets to Brazil, and bring along their best friends, Claire (Thandiwe Newton) and the substance-abusing Kenny (Steve Zahn), to star in and lens the film, respectively.

After landing in the Amazon, the crew begins filming their “masterpiece,” only to find themselves embroiled in a gold-poaching plot that manifests as the more flat and less fleshed-out elements of an already cluttered script. But soon, a greater danger appears when a real colossal boa constrictor turns their happy-go-lucky shoot into a perilous adventure for their lives, forcing them to live out the movie they were dying to remake.

While the film struggles to balance its comedy, it manages to power through with sheer force of will.

While Gormican, who co-pens the screenplay with Kevin Etten, slightly labors to find the right comedic balance—at times running the odd gag into the ground or opting for an obvious joke (Nicki Minaj’s titular hit is dropped a few too many times)—Anaconda powers through on sheer force of chemistry. Whether it’s Doug being dubbed “The White Jordan Peele” or the group having to help a member urinate on someone’s poisoned limb, the film’s wild swings and detours are held together by the natural, witty interplay and dynamics of its central foursome.

Jack Black is deftly cast against type, usually relegated to being a dopey man-child, he takes on a more earnest and (mostly) sensible persona, disappointed by his life-long aversion to risk, he feels completely relatable even as he dives headfirst into ridiculously comical extremes (often recalling his work in Peter Jackson’s King Kong). In turn, Anaconda (2025) inverts Paul Rudd’s repute as a heroic lead, rendering him the oafish, down-on-his-luck friend who, despite his best efforts, leads the group down a progressively precarious path.  

Such bait-and-switches rifle through Anaconda (2025)’s brisk 99-minute runtime, which not only understands it’s yet another largely unwanted Hollywood reboot, but also uses that tired, worn fabric to disarm audiences and mine a rewarding vein of comedic gold.

Even when the visuals fail to deliver visual gold, the creative comedic energy keeps the spirit alive.

While Anaconda (2025) does fall prey to some one-note, stilted moments—namely, a lazy cameo from the 1997 original— it bustles with enough creative, comic energy to keep it enthralling. None more so, in Steve Zahn’s wimpy, drug-addled Kenny, who often steals the spotlight, radiating an unpredictable energy that injects much-needed vigor and flair into the film’s more eyebrow-raising sequences.

It all coalesces in a climactic chase sequence that tows a satisfying line between nail-biting tension and gut-busting hilarity, not only featuring Black’s Doug feverishly sprinting from the titular serpent but one of the most well-timed and cathartic WTF-bombs of the year.

While Anaconda (2025) is held back by some questionable visual effects, flat cinematography, and lazy gags, such disarray becomes a strength in a film that champions a scrappy, D.I.Y. filmmaking spirit. Though a tighter, sharper version of this film exists, it pulsates with a weird, winking spirit that is sorely missing from most contemporary studio comedies.

Anaconda (2025) is in theaters on December 25, 2025.