Hollywood, according to many, does not have original ideas anymore as the big studios do little more than crank out sequels, sometimes decades after the fact, or remakes of movies that were beloved for a reason, sometimes even for good reasons. Now, I would say there are original works, but there is a good deal of truth to the idea. However, sometimes there are creative remakes, ones that take a more meta approach to the material or just find a really creative way to retell the story. I’m thinking of the recent Jumanji movies where the “board game comes to life” becomes “the characters are plunged into a video game.” The spirit is there, the results may be more entertaining than the original, and that may be good things for the audience.
Anyway, someone decided to do a comedic reboot of the 1997 movie Anaconda with Paul Rudd and Jack Black.
Doug (Black) films wedding videos for a living but wants to be a filmmaker, particularly in horror. Griff (Rudd) is a struggling actor who left Buffalo to give L.A. a try. The two men, friends from their high school days, reunite for Doug’s birthday party, along with friends Claire (Thandiwe Newton) and Kenny (Steve Zahn). The four had, back in high school, made a horror movie of their own and had dreams of making more. But as the four reconnect, Griff drops a bombshell: he owns the rights to the movie Anaconda, and as such, he proposes that the four fly down to the Amazon River Basin and remake or re-imagine the movie in a guerrilla style project. The four go to Brazil, hire a boat, and find a local man (Selton Mello) with a pet snake to be their snake handler.
There are some complications, starting with the fact that a young woman (Daniela Melchior) pretends to be the captain of their ship as she dodges a group of well-armed men, and worse, the snake dies, prompting the wannabe filmmakers to head out into the jungle to get a new snake. Small problem there: the snake they find is very, very large and hungry. Can Doug, Griff, and their friends dodge the armed locals, the snake, and their own issues long enough to finish the movie?
There’s a lot to say about what this movie is trying to do. The big problem is it pretty much fails miserably. The humor isn’t very good, and I get the impression the filmmakers were hoping that Rudd’s charisma, Black’s energy, and, to a lesser extent, Zahn’s comedic weirdness would be enough to produce something audiences might actually want to see. Now, I have yet to see Black commit anything less than 100% to any project, and Rudd is charming, but there’s only so much these guys can do with the material they’ve been given. I think the movie finally lost me during a scene where someone needs to do something that normally requires privacy, and the resulting conversation isn’t the slightest bit amusing.
I will give the movie credit for one big plot developments that turns an expected cliche on its ear, but beyond that, the funniest parts are in the trailer, and the trailer isn’t that funny. It’s the sort of movie where you’re pretty sure you know where the movie is going, and most of the time, you are absolutely correct. There’s a pair of post-credits scenes, one at the start and one in the middle, and the one that appears mid-credits works only if you care about the character appearing in it, and I didn’t, so I figure that says about all I need to say about this new Anaconda. Then again, I will also give the movie credit for essentially saying the original maybe wasn’t that great either, but draw your own conclusions.
Grade: C-
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