Anaconda Reboot Proves Why The Original Is An Untouchable Cult Classic

Remakes or reboots are not, and never have been, inherently bad. Some of the greatest films of all time are continuations of beloved franchises. Just watch “Mad Max: Fury Road.” It happens. It can happen. So no one should blame Sony for thinking there might be a good reason to reboot “Anaconda.” This doesn’t sound like a flawless classic. That said, the new meta-comedy version of the giant creature feature serves as proof that there’s something truly untouchable about that original film.

To be clear, this is not a review of director Tom Gormican’s new film “Anacanoda.” /Ethan Anderton from the film has already handled this expertly. This is not meant to be a takedown of this film. This isn’t about getting into spoiler-filled territory about what works and what doesn’t. More than anything, it’s about highlighting, nearly 30 years later, what’s surprisingly special about the original ’90s creature classic that, somehow, with time, seems to become even more special. It’s something delightfully abnormal.

Director Luis Llosa’s film hardly resembled a monster movie blockbuster, hoping to make a name for itself alongside the genre’s staples. “Jaws of the Serpent” was probably thrown around in the pitch room. It was a success that spawned a series of lesser sequels, including the low-budget bonkers “Lake Placid” versus Anaconda. It would be hard for anyone at the time to guess that it would merit a passionate critical reappraisal by comparing it to a reboot built on the premise that people of a certain age love the film.

We are still there. The reboot, if anything, only served to highlight what made the original a beloved cult classic in its own right.

“Anaconda” from 1997 is a lot of things. This came at a time when “Jurassic Park” proved that nothing was impossible thanks to advances in CGI. Nevertheless, Sony and Llosa used an absolutely unruly and expensive animatronic snake to bring the titular beast to lifeplus some very ’90s CGI shots. It’s a mix of the two, as some of the best things often are. Is this one of the best things? My heart says yes, but my mind probably says no. I digress.

It’s a movie with a bizarre, stacked ensemble that includes rapper Ice Cube, fellow musical icon Jennifer Lopez, a brief cameo from a young Danny Trejo, an up-and-coming Owen Wilson, Eric Stoltz could have been the star of ‘Back to the Future’and a wacky performance for the ages from Jon Voight. It all represents an attempt to make a successful and honest monster movie.

Although it sometimes seems that way, thanks in large part to Voight’s madcap portrayal of snake catcher Paul Serone, the film doesn’t wink or nod at the camera like “Sharknado.” It’s not meant to be delightfully absurd like “Deep Blue Sea.” It’s not about making the most of almost non-existent resources like “Deep Humanoids”.

Instead, what we have is a really serious attempt at making a fun, scary, large-scale monster movie for the masses. It’s undoubtedly a more unbalanced and less serious film than anyone intended to make in the first place, but none of the humor or crazy moments were built into it to begin with. Seriousness is the secret sauce of this film all these years later. That said, Sony was probably right not to make a simple remake of “Anaconda.”

They didn’t attempt, or even attempt, a sequel like “Jurassic World.” Rather, they had the presence of mind to know that they had to try something outside the box. There is no realistic way to find that very specific flash in that very specific bottle, at least not intentionally. For what it’s worth, there’s a pretty crazy Chinese remake of “Anaconda” from 2024but that’s a whole different beast.

Rather than tell the story of documentarians trying to track down an extinct tribe and coming across a large, deadly snake, Gormican chooses to tell a meta-tale involving a group of friends led by Doug (Jack Black) and Griff (Paul Rudd) who decided to remake “Anaconda” on a shoestring budget because it was a beloved favorite from their youth. This is a fun and interesting idea.

The resulting film is extremely meta – perhaps too much for its own good at times. He reminiscent of great films like “Tropic Thunder”, with the whole “film within a film” concept at play. I’m not trying to lower one to elevate the other, but it’s fair to say that Gormican’s film doesn’t quite reach that level, sometimes feeling like a hat-trick of a hat. He admirably tries to do his own work while respecting the original. This sincere love for the source material is welcome.

However, what it does more than anything else is highlight how difficult it is to reboot something so singular. The casting is very good. The idea is good. The idea is good, and yet what we are left with above all is even more respect for what came before.

“Anaconda” is currently in theaters.