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The original Anaconda movie came out almost 30 years ago.
It starred Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, and some very deadly snakes.
The new Anaconda is a lot of fun.
It's a meta re-imagining in which Jack Black and Paul Rudd play aspiring filmmakers who attempt to make a meta reimagining of Anaconda.
It's not quite a reboot, it's not quite a sequel, and it has played for laughs.
I'm Stephen Thompson.
Today we are talking about Anaconda on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.
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Joining me today is Jordan Cruciola.
She's a writer and producer and the host of the podcast Feeling Seen on Maximum Fun.
Hey, Jordan.
Hello, honor to be here on the Anaconda Day.
It's a big one.
Also with us is filmmaker, pop culture critic, and iHeartRadio producer, Joelle Monique.
Hey, Joelle.
Happy holidays, Steven.
Happy holidays to you.
And rounding out the panel is Jordan Morris.
He's a podcaster and the writer of the upcoming Marvel Comics series, Predator Bloodshed.
Hey, Jordan.
Hi, great to be here.
It is a pleasure to have you.
So many Jordans.
Jordan Cruciola, you can be Jordan Alpha if you want to, and I'll be Jordan Beta.
I'll defer to your preference.
So I can be Jordan Alpha for the day.
I accept this privilege.
In rooms with multiple Stevens, I just go by Steven 1.0.
So the original Anaconda and you kind of have to put original in scare quotes sent an assortment of 90s movie stars down the Amazon where they were menaced and occasionally crushed and or devoured by giant deadly snakes.
That film was a hit that spawned a handful of lightly regarded sequels.
The new Anaconda is heavy on meta references to the original film.
Jack Black and Paul Rudd star as lifelong friends who grew up wanting to be filmmakers, but they've followed different career paths.
Paul Rudd's character is a struggling actor whose biggest role was a bit part on the TV show SWAT, while Jack Black's character makes wedding videos while yearning to shoot something more creative creative.
For reasons too convoluted to list here, they wind up gathering their old friends and collaborators played by Tendiwe Newton and Steve Zahn, and head to the Amazon to shoot a reimagining of Anaconda.
As you can imagine, this proves harder than it sounds.
Put your face right up next to the snake.
I don't like this.
I don't want to do it anymore.
Get a tiny bit closer.
You've got to do.
No, I don't quite have it.
You've got the shot.
This is gold.
Just give me one more second.
The new Anaconda is in theaters now.
Jordan Cruciola, I'm going to start with you.
What did you think?
I'm going to start off this by saying, huge fan of original Anaconda.
Big movie in my house growing up.
Hell yeah.
So I like never go into movies with baggage like that's not my thing.
I'm so remake redux.
I'm like, I'm going to take it on its own terms.
It is what it is.
I was very nervous about the Jack Blackification of movies that happens when Jack Black is even standing near them, let alone the star of them.
Not that that's a bad thing, but like the delight of anaconda is, it's so earnest, it's so right, taking completely seriously in the performance of john voight the entire premise, and i didn't need the same movie over again.
But i knew in my heart like i want crawl, but with an anaconda.
So i will say all of that going in.
I had a very fun time.
The Jack Black quotient worked for me.
Honestly, seeing 10 D-Way Newton have this much fun was like soul healing.
Steve Zahn was my MVP.
If you bear the same concerns that I do about Anaconda, I think this is a best case scenario of this kind of Anaconda and I would encourage you to see it in a theater with friends.
Okay.
Jordan Morris, how about you?
Yeah, I also liked this a lot.
I will say, like Jordan Alpha, I also have a deep love of the original Anaconda.
I saw it in high school with a group of friends.
And like the friends in this movie, we constantly quote Anaconda to each other.
Like, if I ran into them on the street, we would quote Anaconda to each other.
So when I saw that part of this premise, I was like, it me.
It may.
That's some niche representation that one can never expect, but I feel like it only be very pleasantly surprised by
Yes, it was wonderful to finally see myself on screen.
And I also really like this director's other movie, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, the movie where Nick Cage plays himself.
That is a kind of kooky premise that shouldn't work that I thought was a great movie.
I like this like a little bit less, but I ultimately had a really fun time with it.
It's trying for a lot of different tones.
It sometimes wants to be kind of a more grounded comedy.
It sometimes wants to be kind of a crazy anchorman sketch comedy.
It sometimes wants to be horror and there's an action subplot that kind of hangs on like an appendix.
That the movie cares about even less than I do.
Yes.
Yes.
But I will say when like the snake hits the fan in this movie, it is so much fun.
And I totally agree with the sentiment that like it's a blast in a theater.
Yeah.
Okay.
How about you, Joelle?
I was eight when the original Anaconda came out.
My parents had no thought process as to like what is appropriate for a child.
So I definitely saw that at eight and I loved it.
And I became obsessed with it.
It's a great effing movie.
Like it's so fun.
I thought this movie had a lot of fun, too.
I think, you know, to Jordan Alpha's point, the chemistry between red and black is so fun.
Like they are twinkling.
These are movie stars.
Like, wow.
The jokes are hitting.
The clip you played at the top is my favorite part.
I once held a snake once in Chicago, once in Florida.
They move faster in Florida.
It was really scary.
And so I was really connected to it.
I was like, okay, I too am afraid of snakes, but I'm fascinated by them.
I thought most of the comedy hits.
You've got a couple of flat parts, but I think Jordan Bader's point of trying to do a lot of different themes and tones throughout really hurts the movie overall, because you don't ever feel confident about where it's going.
The setup is perfection, like they really get friends who are amateur filmmakers gassing themselves up to perfection.
Totally, this is a masterpiece.
Don't change a word.
No dude, you killed it.
Scary, it's emotional, it's funny when it needs to be dude.
Thank you.
Hey, it's so the.
Your script is genius.
They love it.
We're gonna go to the amazon with forty thousand dollars and make a big budget movie like it's so good yeah, But once you're in the jungle and they're getting into the action bits, my God, it slows down a lot.
The characters kind of fall apart a bit.
It's just a little bit under what I was hoping for.
Maybe I'm the stupid one because I had high hopes for this film.
I'm glad you did.
I'm glad you saw this poster and you were like, Banger.
Better be five bags.
I saw the trailer.
I was like, Anaconda meets the Jumanji remakes?
Yes, I want this.
And I will say, like, I think I had a lot more fun because I did see it in theater.
If you are a, I'm going to the movies on Christmas and you're like okay, Marty Supreme, you look great, but I'm just trying to have a jolly time.
It's Christmas, and this looks kind of heavy.
Mm-hmm.
It's not going to be a bad pick.
You're going to have a good-ass time.
Like, go with your buddies.
I think you're right.
This is a good movie with the family on Christmas pick.
Absolutely.
That's good curation.
Yeah.
One of my questions going into this movie was how familiar are you going to need to be with the original Anaconda?
Not at all.
Because, unlike the Jordans and Joelle, I had never seen Anaconda until about three hours before I went to the screening.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
Did you understand this one then?
I'm too deep in.
Okay.
I did end up seeing the 1997 Anaconda right before this film.
Amazing.
And that, I think, really enhanced the experience.
I think if you are somebody who, like me, saw Arachnophobia and filed away, I have seen Anaconda-
And then realized shortly before the screening, no, I actually have to catch up on this movie.
But I do think the lore of the first film, this is a film for people who love the first Anaconda.
Absolutely.
And I think that you're going to appreciate this film a lot more if you have seen Anaconda 1.0.
I'm glad that Jordan Morris mentioned the unbearable weight of massive talent, which was also directed by Tom Gormekin, who does this as well.
To me, these are very, very similar films.
If you liked that film, you should definitely see this.
They're both approaching kind of popcorn film history with deep, deep love and kind of meta appreciation.
If you like meta, this is a very, very, very meta film. film it's kind of commenting on itself it's kind of commenting on the industry and IP and the original anaconda and for me I honestly I just dug it I agree that it's got subplots that kind of go nowhere I definitely agree with the point about how tonally it's all over the place it's kind of this shambling amiable comedy about these friends but there is a body count people have to be eaten by snakes and And so that requires kind of putting in place these very superfluous characters in this very superfluous subplot in order to kind of get to a place where people are eaten by snakes.
But for me there is a certain kind of mid-budget, mid-tier kind of lightness and playfulness to this film that was such a tonic in the middle of award season.
You know, I recommend, see this right after you see Hamnet.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Yes.
Yes.
If you need a palate cleanser.
Guys, can I make a suggestion?
Can we get this started?
Hamaconda?
Oh.
It's the Barbenheimer of 2025.
The counter-programming bonanza of Hamaconda.
Right.
Hamaconda.
Jordan Morris.
You know, I think we all kind of agree that, like, the tone stuff doesn't always work.
I will be the one to say I loved the action parts of this movie.
The snake chases were really fun.
And my favorite parts of this movie were when this movie was being an Anaconda movie.
So, hey, snake chase fans, there is stuff for you in this, too.
There's some legitimate scares.
And I think the ultimate movie in this category, I think, for me, is Shaun of the Dead, right?
I think that's the movie that nails this.
I think this doesn't nail it in that way.
You know, because Shaun of the Dead, the funny stuff is funny.
You care about the characters.
The horror stuff works.
Yeah.
This isn't quite there, but I think by the end of this movie, or at least in the back half of this movie, the characters get dumber.
They get significantly dumber.
And I think the movie is better for it.
I kind of maybe thought they should have been leaning into kind of that Anchorman a little more sketchy comedy the whole time, because I think that works a little bit better for it.
But I did like, by the end of it, I was whooping it up.
Yeah.
And see, Jordan, I kept thinking about Walk Hard is like my gold star comedy movie.
And what I love about that movie is, as goofy and off the rails and weird as it is, you genuinely care about these characters and like their outcome.
Yeah.
Obviously, like it's supposed to be a two hander between Rudd and Black.
But Tendiwe comes in and they try to force this romance between her and Rudd's character, which didn't
Tendiwe Newton.
Yeah.
And it is kind of tosses the story for me, a little bit like i didn't understand like why that needed to.
Sure be, i guess they're like we have to have a romance.
But in addition to like some of the secondary characters, i was like if we had instead made her not just the love interest but given her a little bit more character or been more of a person, we could have leaned into that comedy more and had, like i think, an overall like a much better time really focused on like these two friendships, like i did also didn't feel like we had enough of a breaking point between the two friends just for a good structure act of rise and fall.
They're always on each other's side.
I wish there was a little bit more personal internal conflict in this comedy, so that we cared a little bit more about the characters at the end.
I do think the rise in stupidity works with the action, because the snake Guys, we talk about the snake.
The snake design is really...
The snake's cool.
The snake looks cool.
Yeah, guys, that's of utmost importance.
If you're talking about an anaconda movie, how's the snake?
The snake is great.
It's superior snake.
And the biggest friggin' snake that's ever existed on the face of this earth.
The snake's big.
Gargantuan snake.
And it somehow still feels real.
You're like.
I'm for sure there's not a snake this large ever on the planet.
But my God, I feel terrified.
It's so big.
And then two, listen, there's a scaling of snakes in here that works really well too.
Like at first you're like, that's a big snake.
And you're like, that's a big snake.
It's like a really jump in moment for you that works really well.
And so I don't want to poo poo all the action.
I thought like to have a great looking snake, I had a few jump scares in there, which surprised me.
I wasn't really anticipating that the scares would work, but they did.
Yeah.
If you go back and watch the original, the snake, it's that 90s CGI.
It looks like the snake was made by the same company that made the Flying Toaster screensaver.
Until you got those great rubber body shots.
I think we all agree that, like the four leads of this movie are like the four of the most charming fun to watch people working in movies.
And they're all great.
Yes.
Special shout out to Steve Zahn.
Absolutely.
I'm so glad we're like seeing him more these days.
It felt like, you know, when the original came out, he's not in it.
But like this was when Steve Zahn was everywhere.
And now he's like back again.
I think we're kind of in the middle of a little bit of a dare I say Zahn-a-san.
Oh.
That one I saw coming.
Hamaconda was off the dome.
I came up with Zamasans at the theater.
So, you know, I teed it up a little bit better.
I did wonder while we were watching the movie he's giving this like kind of kooky, stoned weirdo performance.
I did wonder, was that supposed to be Owen Wilson at any point?
Was it supposed to be him either playing his character or a guy from their friend group who looks exactly like Owen Wilson?
Anyway, I'm glad Zahn is there.
But his kind of like weirdo performance had me wondering like oh, was that supposed to be Owen Wilson at some point?
I do think the tonal melange is absolutely correct in explaining how this movie feels.
I do think it actually helped me in this one because it was so much not the anaconda that I wanted.
It's not just a straight-up, we're serious Anaconda-ing, which is what I want.
The bouncing back and forth between things meant that I wasn't getting annoyed at too much of one shtick.
That wasn't what I wanted.
So actually the dipping platter that this movie presented.
It gave me options to kind of bounce back and forth between things, because I would have gotten really frustrated, I think, with more Anchorman bitsiness.
Mm-hmm.
To me, it was a feature, not a bug.
I'm not saying I'm the average viewer in this one.
But the cocktail really sang for me.
The gag that you guys do see in the trailer with Jack Black running and a boar taped to him.
Oh my gosh.
I was shocked to be reduced to absolute tears of laughter.
I couldn't breathe.
At a certain point, I was laughing because I was laughing so hard.
And I was like this, this of all things, but yeah, it really facts master, that was in charge of the pig.
You sir you ma'am, are a true all-star.
Whoever gave the pig those weird puppety eyeballs?
Oh my god, the pig's great, the pig's great yeah, oh god, bouncing off the top of jack flag's head, that was comedy gold.
Gotta say What this movie made me realize about myself, in addition to I didn't know that I could be made to laugh that hard by a pig strapped to somebody's back.
Me neither, honestly.
Is I think I just love a movie in which weirdos try to make art.
Yeah.
A thousand percent.
This movie has a lot of fun with the idea of like, what are our larger themes?
Intergenerational drama.
Yeah.
And that was really, really funny, because one of the things that I felt watching Anaconda was like oh man, the real snake is man.
It's very much like the vibe of that movie.
My friend leaned over and went, Manaconda?
But to me, there actually is a theme of this movie that I love and found deeply inspiring, which is like if you have a chance in your life to make art, it doesn't have to be the great American novel.
It can be a reboot of Anaconda because you love Anaconda.
And I found that stuff really, really inspiring and sweet.
Yes.
Good actors performing badly is such a hard thing to do.
And I thought they aced it because they come at it with such earnestness and fullness that what you see to your point Stephen, is friends just having fun.
And that being the joy of crafting the art.
And my heart was so full.
Like I make shorts with my friends all the time and and exactly the same conversations, really like I'm just nervous about the scene.
And like when they're pitching stuff to each other like around the table, I was like you could just tell that everybody involved like just loves the process of making movies and I think my heart really felt full in that like even there's a moment at the end where they're getting to present their film and I thought where they present it is so like and lovely.
Yes.
I was like, this is an excellent choice.
I loved that.
I'm so glad to hear you both bring that up because, like I don't know if it's just because it's like we're in a desert and I, my thirst must be slaked, or something.
But like when I see things that are like when I it's either clear that it's like something so indie and it's like friends just making something together, or this, which is like a meta thing about friends.
I get emotional.
Like I get fully emotional.
I'm like, this is what it's all about.
You know, I could never, I could never, I could never reboot Anaconda.
It feels like restorative.
And I'm not saying the movie doesn't do like its thing well that it's doing but it's also like wow, is this my whole like constant existence state that, like I watch Anaconda and like you know, filmmakers should keep going.
Like it's hard, but they should keep going, man.
All right, well, I think it's safe to say we got a kick out of this one.
Yeah, a kick.
We want to know what you think about Anaconda, new and old.
Find us on Facebook at facebookcom slash pchh.
And on Letterboxd at letterboxdcom slash nprpopculture.
We'll have a link in our episode description.
That brings us to the end of our show.
Jordan Cruciola, Joelle Monique, Jordan Morris, thanks so much for being here.
Thank you, Stephen.
Yeah, what a blast.
Ham-na-conda.
Ham-na-conda forever.
This episode was produced by Carly Rubin, Kayla Lattimore and Mike Katziff and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy.
Hello, Come In provides our theme music.
Thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.
I'm Stephen Thompson.
We will see you all next time.
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