‘Predator’ Meets ‘Tropic Thunder’ in 2025’s Creature Thriller That’s Taking Over the World

Not every strange studio comedy finds its audience right away. Some of them need a little distance from theaters before viewers decide they’re ready to meet them on their own terms. That seems to be exactly what’s happening with Anaconda, the 2025 meta monster movie that throws Jack Black and Paul Rudd into a jungle nightmare that feels part spoof, part survival thriller, and part love letter to chaotic studio filmmaking. It’s the kind of movie that always seemed built for a second life online.

That second life is now very much happening. The film has been performing strongly on HBO Max’s global chart, where it has ranked near the very top of the movie lineup in recent days. That’s a big boost for a title that already had a decent amount of curiosity around it thanks to its cast and its knowingly ridiculous premise.

The cast includes Black, Rudd, and Ice Cube, with the film reworking the old killer-snake setup into something much more self-aware and much sillier. That mix of comedy, creature-feature chaos, and movie-industry satire is clearly landing better in people’s living rooms than it did in cinemas. Sometimes a movie just needs the right habitat, and for Anaconda, that habitat seems to be HBO Max.

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Is ‘Anaconda’ Worth Watching?

Collider’s review by Aidan Kelley stated that Anaconda has a smart idea for a reboot, but the movie never fully figures out how to use it. Instead of simply remaking the 1997 cult favorite, this version turns the whole thing into a meta comedy about a group of friends trying to make their own Anaconda movie. That setup gives the film a fresh angle, and at times, it is genuinely funny and surprisingly sweet.

“Anaconda had the premise and bones to be something really special when it comes to meta remakes. It had a great cast and a surprising amount of heart, but that’s simply not enough to save the movie’s rough pacing and pointless subplots from the jaws of a giant snake who barely appears on the call sheet. If you’re looking for a fun, entertaining, laugh-out-loud horror movie about a giant snake hunting a crew of people on the Amazon, you’re honestly better off watching the antics of the original flick instead.”

Anaconda is streaming now.

Release Date

December 24, 2025

Runtime

100 minutes

Director

Tom Gormican