'Anaconda' review: Jack Black-Paul Rudd 'horror-comedy' is toothless, but passably entertaining

In "Anaconda," Jack Black plays Doug McCallister, a wannabe writer-director making an amateur reboot of the 1997 film of the same name. He may not have big stars or even a modest budget, but he does have his high school friends Griff and Claire, played by Paul Rudd and Thandiwe Newton. While filming on location in the Amazon rain forest, one of Doug’s crew vanishes — right down the gullet of a 40-foot-long snake.

"We came out here to make ‘Anaconda,’" Doug says in a trailer-ready sound bite, "and now we’re in it!"

More like "Meta-Conda," amiright? The original film, starring Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube and a scenery-chewing Jon Voight, is an absolute trash classic but spawned only a sputtering franchise of mostly made-for-television sequels (one, in 2008, featured David Hasselhoff). Kudos, then, to director Tom Gormican ("Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F") and his co-writer, Kevin Ettin, for coming up with a clever premise that rides the IP while chuckling at its inherent cheesiness. The execution isn’t fully successful — this is a horror-comedy that falls a little short on both counts — but "Anaconda" is a welcome moviegoing option for the Christmas season: passably entertaining, good natured and (mostly) kid-friendly.

The story begins with Doug, who once dreamed of Hollywood but stayed in Buffalo to become a wedding videographer. His boss tries to buck him up — "This is a B, maybe even a B-plus life we’re talking about" — but Doug’s creative fire is dying. Enter his old friend Griff, who moved to L.A. to pursue acting and returns to Buffalo with an announcement: "I got the rights to ‘Anaconda!’" The plan is to raise a few bucks, fly to the Amazon and start shooting with their old cameraman (Steve Zahn as Kenny, now trying to stay at least "Buffalo sober") and their sometime leading lady (Newton, playing Griff’s old flame).

What follows is a much kinder, gentler "Tropic Thunder" (which also featured Black) that involves a hapless snake handler, Santiago (Selton Mello), and a mysterious boat captain, Ana (Daniela Melchior), who’s being chased by a crew of pistol-packing toughs. The titular reptile looks more convincing than he did in ’97, but he’s intentionally less scary; the PG-13 rating feels overcautious. And although the characters aren’t what you’d call richly drawn — Rudd plays Griff as a little dimmer than necessary, while Newton hasn’t been given a single meaningful line — they’re just likable enough that we care about their fate.

The movie springs a couple of "surprises" that you can probably already see coming, but that’s alright. "Anaconda" is here to have a little fun, not subvert expectations. As with the original film, go in with the right spirit and you might have a pretty good time.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com