Review: Anaconda (2025)
I've rarely seen a movie work so hard to undercut itself as the new Anaconda movie does. The premise is fair enough: a group of pals (Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Thandiwe Newton, Steve Zahn) who used to make films together as children find themselves at various crossroads, including a dead-end job, an acting career going nowhere, and divorce. In an attempt to reclaim their former joy, they set out to make a new Anaconda movie that pays homage to the 1997 original while allowing them to dust off the no-budget amateur filmmaking techniques that they first honed as young movie buffs. On paper, this should be an echo of Tropic Thunder , serving as a self-aware satire of a video store staple while also allowing the audience to look back on the late 1990s with nostalgia and affection. See Jurassic World: Rebirth. Unfortunately, the movie has no idea what to do with any of this and constantly works against its own premise. Is it a warm-hearted story about friendship? A juvenile slapstick thro...