Anaconda

★★.5

starring: jack black, paul rudd, thandiwe newton, and steve zahn

REVIEWER: lyall carter

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.

THIS IS NOT A REBOOT. It is an entirely original comedy, inspired by the cinematic ‘classic' “Anaconda,” that features Doug (Jack Black) and Griff (Paul Rudd), who have been best friends since they were kids and always dreamed of remaking their all-time favorite movie. When a midlife crisis pushes them to finally go for it, they head deep into the Amazon to start filming. But things get real when an actual giant anaconda appears, turning their comically chaotic movie set into a deadly situation. The movie they’re dying to make? It might just get them killed…

The premise of Anaconda is pretty heartfelt: a group of friends who used to make movies together when they were kids are going to remake one of their favorite films from their childhood: Anaconda.

This alone is enough for a cinephile like myself to think back to those days when you were together with your mates recreating your favorite films. Anaconda really taps into that nostalgia really well.

But unfortunately Anaconda meanders from plot point to plot point with no real fixed point to everything going on around it. Is it, at its heart, a film about a group of mates making a movie? If so they needed to develop those characters more, especially Thandwie Newton’s Claire who is criminally underused. Or is it really an Anaconda movie? Well, it probably needed to be a lot more creepy and a lot less a comedic jaunt through the jungle. And then to top it all off is a subplot about gold-smuggling that never really fits.

There are definitely some highlights here though. Jack Black and Paul Rudd have incredibly believable chemistry: you’d swear that they had been friends for years. They should definitely do another movie together. There are some real funny moments here too, beyond what you may have already seen in the trailers, which will leave a big stupid grin on your face after the credits have rolled.

While Jack Black and Paul Rudd have incredible chemistry that makes you believe their characters are best friends, Anaconda is let down by a meandering plot and a lack of real direction.