Anaconda
This is a Hollywood action movie filled with comedy. Honestly, I didn’t expect this kind of film at all. For so many years, movies have used the anaconda snake to scare us badly. All those scary memories automatically come to our mind, right? But can we handle it if they turn that same snake into something brutally funny? I never thought that would work. This movie stars the forever young Ant Man and Friends fame Paul Rudd. Usually, if Paul Rudd is there, comedy is guaranteed. And this movie’s core itself is comedy. Let’s see what it’s all about.
In the story, Paul Rudd plays a character named Griff, who is a supporting actor in Hollywood. He and his friends have been very close since childhood. They used to make short films and watch them together as a family, so their friendship is really strong. I may not have friendships like that, but at least he does, friends like Doug, Kenny, and Claire. Griff lies to them saying that he owns the rights to the movie Anaconda. Believing him, Doug, who was editing wedding videos till then, suddenly gets a fire to become a director. So all the friends come together, go into the Amazon forest, rent a baby anaconda, and decide to shoot a movie. The rest of the story is about how they make the film and how it totally messes with us in a funny way.
In reality, the rights for Anaconda belong to Sony, and this movie is also made by Sony. While Paul Rudd’s team is shooting their version of Anaconda, the original Sony team suddenly arrives to shoot the real film, with Ice Cube, Jennifer Lopez, and others. That’s when Paul Rudd’s friends realize that he was lying about having the rights. This scene gives massive mileage to the movie. More than the snake scares, this moment has great comedy potential. It keeps making us feel that something special is happening in the film. Ana’s entry also creates a feeling that there’s some big twist coming, but in reality, that character is used only to make us believe that. Other than that, there’s no real use.
Even though every character has good scope for comedy, it feels like everyone is underplaying just to highlight the character Doug. I’m not sure whether that was intentional or if the story itself was written that way. For Doug’s character, there are many scenes designed purely to make us laugh hard. For example, the scene where an anaconda suddenly grabs Doug while he’s talking, and later spits him out, and then they use his body as bait to distract the snake so the others can escape. Those scenes are pure laugh out loud material.
On top of everything, the cameo appearances of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez are perfectly placed. They appear exactly when the story needs them, and only for the right amount of time, which makes it even better. Nowadays, even Tamil comedy movies are not really suitable to watch with family or kids. But this movie was a big surprise, it’s actually made in a way that you can enjoy it as a family, even with children. I truly didn’t expect that at all.