Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 39 minutes, Director – Tom Gormican
A group of friends (Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton) set out to the Amazon rainforest to achieve their childhood dream of making a film. However, whilst remaking Anaconda they must escape an actual giant snake.
In the build-up to this not-quite-remake of cult 90s creature adventure flick Anaconda (one that even with that cult audience still doesn’t have the best of reputations) I found myself wondering why Paul Rudd and Jack Black weren’t just playing themselves instead of struggling actor and aspiring director turned wedding video maker Griff and Doug. Perhaps that would feel a bit too self-referential with too many distracting in-jokes, and what we get certainly has a good few chuckles as the childhood friends reunite, alongside Thandiwe Newton’s Claire and Steve Zahn’s Kenny, to finally achieve their dream of making a film together.
The film in question is a remake of Anaconda, which Griff claims to have the rights of after the widow of the Japanese author who wrote the book the original is allegedly based on enjoyed the four episodes of a cop show he was in years before agreed to give them to him. So, with very little budget the four set out to the Amazon rainforest to make their film. As they make a series horror-adventure flick this reboot is firmly a comedy that acknowledges the ridiculousness of the eventual giant snake attacks, and the original film – particularly Jon Voight’s accent.
While not frequently or raucously funny there are still some good chuckles to be found here, and they largely come from the characters being themselves – a sign that the pair of leads not playing themselves was perhaps the better decision; although while led by Rudd and Black in advertising and general narrative this does largely play out as an effective four-hander, even if Newton gets very little of the comedy which is mostly handed to her male co-stars.
However, narratively the film appears to admit that it’s rather thin. Travelling down the river via river boat the group take a good while the come across the titular snake itself, which seems to appear just over halfway through and then crops up for various sequences from then. Alongside this main thread there’s also a strange strand about gold smugglers (led by Daniela Melchior as Ana, who we see fleeing men with guns tracking her from the film’s opening). This strand consistently feels out of place and thin amongst everything else that’s surrounding it, and ultimately feels like little more than padding for the run-time, which itself feels slightly overlong with some of the slower-paced set-pieces, and perhaps set-up once we finally arrive in the Amazon.
It’s hard to judge this against the original Anaconda because it’s a very different film. One that’s more tongue-in-cheek and aware of its central elements, with a sense of self-awareness about at least its core details. However, the laughs can be sporadic which also means you feel the fairly short run-time. When the laughs do come through they hit relatively well and help to move things along, generally working best when this film is putting the comedy first, especially as it’s meant to be a comedy. It’s unlikely anyone will view this as anything particularly great, but for the most part it’s a likable enough comedy that’s easy enough to switch off into and be amused by whilst on.
While not as funny as it perhaps could be due to getting distracted with thin sideplots, Anaconda manages to raise a couple of chuckles through its run-time thanks to the characters at hand and the ways in which, for the most part, they lead the film.
Just A Little Bit Random 