It is probably too much hyperbole to call Sony’s Anaconda the funniest movie of the year, but for my money it really is. It initially started out to be the studio’s desire to remake or “reimagine” their 1997 horror movie of the same name that starred Ice Cube, Jon Voight, and Jennifer Lopez among others, and dealt with a National Geographic film crew hijacked by an insane hunter in his quest to bag an elusive giant snake. Studios naturally love to find a way to just repeat their successful IP and Anaconda was enough of a hit to think about a reboot all these years later. If Jumanji keeps working for Sony, why can’t this one also? And director Tom Gormican and his co-screenwriter Kevin Etten had a unique idea, quite an inspired one. Previously they had paired on the very funny 2022 comedy, The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent with Nicolas Cage playing a whacked out version of Nicolas Cage.

Similarly their pitch for this one was to turn it into a comedy vehicle, that also takes satirical shots at the movie business. Two down-on-their-luck guys come to a point in life where they team up to do a remake of their favorite movie as teenagers, Anaconda. Take a sharp premise for laughs and add in the first-ever teaming of Paul Rudd and Jack Black, and you have a recipe for a LOL good time at the movies. Comedy has been in short supply of late, and this one is sort of sneaking in at the end of a year where a traditional movie comedy is suddenly an endangered species. Naked Gun ably filled the bill over the summer, and I loved Aziz Ansari’s Good Fortune with Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves also in the cast, but that one sadly opened and closed this Fall without making much of an impression on audiences. There just aren’t that many comedies that aren’t also masquerading as something else. This one just wants to make you laugh. It does.

Here Gormican switches up the expected casting by making Black largely the straight man to Rudd’s crazier friend. Doug McCallister (Black) is a frustrated filmmaker stuck in a dead-end job as a wedding videographer, always wanting to sell his blockbuster tentpole ideas to the bride and groom who just only want the traditional treatment, not the blood and gore he has in mind. Ronald Griffin Jr, aka Griff (Rudd) is a failed actor with a few small credits, most notably a four-episode arc on Swat, who gets fired from his latest job and then comes up with the idea to call Griff, get their school cameraman Kenny (Steve Zahn) and Griff’s ex-girlfriend Claire (Thandiwe Newton) back together to go to the Amazon and do a low budget remake of Anaconda, which through happenstance somehow Doug claims he has the remake rights.

With a reluctant Doug finally aboard after his wife Malie (Ione Skye) convinces him to live the dream, they all leave Buffalo for the snake infested waters of Brazil’s Amazon. After getting a boat and a captain, Ana (Daniela Melchior) the first order of duty is sign on a title star, and they get one, a professional huge anaconda named Heitor who comes with his trainer and best friend, a local named Santiago (Selton Mello). Though Heitor is claimed to be no more harmful than a puppy, there are some moments of fright for Griff who is a little uneasy acting opposite him and at one point panics and tosses him overboard resulting in Heitor’s gruesome demise. Santiago is distraught and wracked with grief while Doug and Griff now have to figure out how to replace their star with another snake to keep this production afloat. Well isn’t the Amazon full of these things? They will find one. Not a good idea when suddenly the real thing starts to eat everyone for dinner.

With Australia’s Queensland coast standing in the Amazon, Gormican skillfully milks all the inherent humor in the situation while also not letting the horror aspects of the original film overtake this one, at least not enough to threaten a PG13 rating. Thankfully he has this cast and a teaming of Rudd and Black who never go into Abbott & Costello territory with the premise but create likeable characters trying to find the spark of life and creative worth they once had in school. And although Black is largely playing it pretty straight he does have a killer signature scene involving a Wild Boar carcass attached to his back as bait for the real anaconda. Priceless Jack Black stuff. The rest of cast fits in nicely, particularly the ever-reliable Zahn and the great Brazilian actor, Mello (I’m Still Here) who is an amusing scene stealer as the grief-stricken anaconda trainer. Without spoiling anything you can also bet on a couple of ace cameos from the original 1997 film.

As for all the creature action, the VFX work here is first rate as are all the big ass snakes employed to play the real deal.

Producers are Brad Fuller, Andrew Form, Gormican, and Etten.

Title: Anaconda
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Release Date: December 25, 2025
Director: Tom Gormican
Screenplay: Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten
Cast: Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton, Daniel Melchior, Selton Mello, Ione Skye.
Rating: PG13
Running Time: 1 hr 39 mins