The Summit County Library’s Sundance Gem series recently showed “Son of Rambow,” about two British youngsters who bond while filming an awkward remake of “First Blood.”
Imagine, if you will, that somebody in Hollywood spun off that idea, saying, “Let’s make the kids Americans, and update them to a mid-life crisis!”
In “Anaconda” 2025, the central characters are Doug and Griff, school friends growing up in Buffalo, New York who made an amateur Sasquatch movie and dreamed of Hollywood success. Then came adulthood.
Griff, the would-be movie star (played by Paul Rudd) did go off to L.A. but has landed only one-liner roles and a recurring role on “SWAT” that stopped recurring after three episodes.
Doug, the would-be director, (played by Jack Black) stayed home and makes a living shooting wedding videos (though he has a tendency to direct nuptials as if they were Wes Craven audition reels).
Griff proposes that they get the old gang back together and re-make “Anaconda” — yes, the 1997 cheesy classic where Jon Voight sneered in an untraceable accent, and actors were swallowed whole by a CGI snake.
They sail up the Amazon with a bare-bones production crew, including a leading lady, Claire (played by Thandiwe Newton) and unreliable Kenny (played by Steve Zahn) as cinematographer. An unspoken gag here is that “Anaconda” was supposedly their favorite movie when they were kids. But all four stars had up-and-coming careers in the 90’s and could easily have appeared in the original film.
The director and co-writer of the film, Tom Gormican, previously spoofed the aura of Nicolas Cage in “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.”
Although the premise is goofy and the performers are likable, the film takes a while to crank up — until disaster strikes for Doug and Griff. Their stunt-snake is accidentally killed, and a search for a replacement turns up an actual monster. This allows the movie to throw in some predictable but fun jump scares.
The team runs into more peril when they encounter gold smugglers, though they also hope that the socially relevant plot twist will help them impress Oscar voters.
The movie includes some satirical jabs at Sony/Columbia, the studio behind the original film, and this re-boot. A couple of cameo appearances also salute the first “Anaconda.” There are some running gags about Buffalo — which, by the way, submitted a bid to be the new location for Sundance. And the movie attempts to answer the question, “Is there a reptile so huge that it can swallow Jack Black?”
Like last summer’s re-boot of “Naked Gun”, the new “Anaconda” is a welcome attempt to bring goofy comedy back to theaters but isn’t as inspired as you would hope. It slithers up to Three on a scale of Five.
