Anaconda

This weekend, Anaconda, a new sequel/reboot to the Anaconda franchise, releases in theaters. Anaconda stars Paul Rudd and Jack Black and follows four friends who travel to the jungle to film a remake of the film Anaconda. The trailers looked amusing enough, but I didn't have high expectations for this film. I have also not seen any of the other Anaconda films.

Anaconda turned out to be a surprisingly funny and entertaining movie. Instead of being a straight-up sequel or reboot, it is about people trying to make an Anaconda movie while also being in an Anaconda movie. Similar to how Scream does meta commentary on the slasher genre, this movie does meta commentary on the creature feature. Anaconda has a lot of meta humor, especially involving the movie-making process, where four inexperienced people venture into the jungle, going as badly as you would expect them to. The movie makes fun of a lot of concepts that filmmakers go through, like social commentary and themes. The movie is also very self-aware, with the characters basically acknowledging that they are in an Anaconda film, which leads to some pretty clever moments. Whenever the movie is trying to be about these four friends trying to film a movie, it is very funny. There is just a lot of outrageous humor that happens where most of my theater was laughing. Paul Rudd and Jack Black were also a lot of fun in the movie. They have the perfect personality to just be themselves and have fun in a movie like this. There is also a pretty clever cameo for fans of the original film that I thought was funny.

While this movie was very clever and funny at times, I wouldn’t call it a high-quality film. When the film is about making a movie, it works well. However, when the whole plot about illegal gold miners takes over, I don’t think it is very good. The subplot is just kind of dropped in and out randomly and is completely forgotten by the time the third act rolls around. I also thought that Jack Black and Paul Rudd really carried the movie and didn’t leave room for the other characters. Steve Zahn has a few funny moments, but the Claire character is given nothing to do. I just wish there had been more chemistry between the four main characters. Anaconda is also pretty light on snake action. You go to a movie like this for snake action, and only 2 people die from the snake. This movie is also just not a high-quality film. It goes for a single, and that is about what it gets.

Overall, this was a surprisingly funny film that provides a lot of meta humor and jokes, but not much else. For what it is going for, it is fun to watch, but in the end, it is just a movie about a giant snake attacking people; you kind of get what you pay for.

Score: 6.5/10 Grade: B- Recommendation: Wait to stream it