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Anaconda movie review: Paul Rudd, Jack Black film is all hiss, hardly any bite

Name: Anaconda
Released: 2025-12-26T18:35:41+05:30
Cast: Paul Rudd, Jack Black

Anaconda movie review: This new version of one of Hollywood's most popular creature features is so desperate to pitch in the laughs along with the scares that it renders everything dull and diluted.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Written by: Shubhra Gupta

3 min readUpdated: Dec 26, 2025 06:42 PM IST

Anaconda movie review: The poor anaconda feels underwhelming, whenever it does get in a look-see.

Anaconda movie review: Help, the ssssnake is back. Not just any old wriggly creature, but the giant anaconda, which is out hunting humans again in the jungles of South America.

Those who’ve seen the 1997 original, starring Jennifer Lopez-Owen Wilson-Jon Voight-Ice Cube and the reptile with a monstrous maw, will remember just how scary it was. The relentless chase– this is a snake which hunts in water, over land, and on tall tree-tops– was all kinds of scary with people falling off boats, thrashing in the jaws of the snake, turning the water bloody.

This one is ‘not’ a reboot. We’re not saying this. It is Doug McAllister (Jack Black), a Buffalo-based failed filmmaker-turned-video producer, who keeps calling it a spiritual sequel, just in case we didn’t get the first time. Arrayed alongside are Doug’s childhood friends– Ronald Griffin aka Griff (Paul Rudd) still struggling to land parts in movies, amateur cinematographer Kenny Trent (Steve Zahn) and mom-of-two Claire Simons (Thandiwe Newton)– who were once bright-kids-with-a-movie-camera.

Now adults, and far from intrepid, they set out to remake the film, starting from scratch. Snake wrangler Santiago (Selton Mello), their companion on the trek into the Amazon rainforest, is a welcome addition to the party, as is mystery woman Ana Almeida (Daniela Melchior), who appears to be running from a couple of armed men.

But in the forest, it’s not humans who are most dangerous: it is, of course, the Anaconda, with a capital A. The susurration begins, the wind murmurs, the boat sways, a scaly tale roils the water, and the reptile claims its first victim. And you wait, heart in mouth, for the feeling of danger to escalate, and the tension mount.

Except nothing of the sort happens. This new version of one of Hollywood’s most popular creature features is so desperate to pitch in the laughs along with the scares that it renders everything dull and diluted. The actors playing the foursome are amiable, bringing in a touch of old-friends shagginess, but the writing overall is lax, with only Mello leaping over it every once in a while.

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Even the poor anaconda feels underwhelming, whenever it does get in a look-see: the star of the show would have sued, if it could, given that everyone else has a bigger part in a film which is called by its name.

Anaconda movie cast: Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton, Daniela Melchior, Selton Mello
Anaconda movie director: Tom Gormican
Anaconda movie rating: Two stars

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