Anaconda (2025) - 4K UHD SteelBook

“Welcome to Hollywood. They make it up as they go along.”

Inherently, I’m not against sequels, reboots, requels, or legacy requel sequel reboots. Sure, I may get a little annoyed at the constant IP mining for a property that’s better left dead or deserves a long rest (looking at you, Scream and Jurassic World), but if there’s a chance for a new take that feels fresh and exciting, I’ll show up at the theater. So when it was announced Sony was going in on delivering a meta reboot of Anaconda, skewing more comedy than creature feature horror with Paul Rudd and Jack Black, I figured “why the hell not, can’t be worse than Anaconda 3!” Thankfully, it wasn’t worse, but it’s also not all that special either. Especially for a movie about a giant snake that barely even has a giant snake in it…

Our little opus features Paul Rudd as struggling semi-failing actor Ronald “Griff” Griffin Jr. The guy just can’t get a break in the biz. Jack Black is Jack Black as the struggling filmmaker, Doug McCallister, who would love to be doing anything else with his life than making uninspired wedding videos. These old childhood friends have a long history of making backyard horror films as kids, and as fate would have it, Ronald now owns the rights to Anaconda. With their own financing and their old friends Claire (Thandiwe Newton) and Kenny (Steve Zahn), they head down to the Amazon to make their own version of the '90s creature feature. Only things don’t go as planned, especially when there’s a giant hungry snake devouring everything it can find. 

So, Anaconda 2025 falls into the category of films that were entertaining the first watch, but not so much the second. I had fun catching this when I did on a cold winter’s day in January, when I just needed some simple, easy, breezy entertainment to pass the time. It’s got some good laughs, and there are some fun twists in the meta movie-within-a-movie plot, but the ROI for repeat viewings diminishes very quickly. Second time through, just two months later, scenes that gave me a good laugh got a simple chuckle. Scenes that gave me a mild giggle, delivered only a simple, unenthused “heh.” And then I really started to feel the arduous length of his beast, as very little happens until the last act. 

I think this film struggles because it spends so much time being safe. And I mean “safe” by not going over-the-top with the comedy or really even capitalizing on the man-vs-nature creature feature violence. The original Anaconda got away with quite a bit as a PG-13 feature; the Vomit Voight is still a highlight. This one has some fun pieces here and there, but as a movie about guys trying to make their own movie about a killer snake who get in way over their heads, I’d have liked some more shock value, something, anything to make this one feel more distinct but also memorable enough to want to see it again.

The plot of Anaconda 2025 is basically like a fictional movie about Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and friends making The Evil Dead, but instead of demons in a cabin, it’s a snake in the Amazon. Lean into that with some ghastly animal horror! Give us more snake action throughout the film, not just in the last 20 minutes. I would have loved to see some Radio Silence-level blood cannon splatter as a snake devours and or regurgitates a hapless human. Even the comedy feels tepid and safe. The boar bit was kinda funny, but it happens so late in the game, it's just an odd moment in an alreasdy oddly-paced film.

The worst thing about this Anaconda is that it feels programmed. The best I can say is that it brings a clever take to old material, and Paul Rudd and Jack Black remain the highlights. Thandiwe Newton does what she can with her small role and Steve Zahn gets a few moments to shine. If it’d pushed itself past the safety of PG-13 and just gone for broke with the horror and the comedy, it’d been a more enduring ride.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
Slithering onto physical media, Anaconda 2025 sheds its rather successful theatrical skin for a single-disc 4K UHD + Digital SteelBook. Pressed on a BD100 disc, the disc is housed in a stylish SteelBook. The disc loads to a static image main menu with standard navigation options. The included digital code is Movies Anywhere compatible and should port to all connected services.  

Shot digitally and finished for a 4K digital intermediate, Anaconda certainly looks pretty damned good in 2160p with Dolby Vision HDR. Shot in Australia to double for Brazil, the visual appeal perks up nicely once our hapless band of nitwits starts making their movie. Visually, it just becomes more lively with the river and jungle locations than the basic suburbia it starts with. Facial features, clothing textures, snake scales, and Thandiwe Newton’s odd hairstyle comes though with great clarity. Since I don’t have a Blu-ray disc to compare, I can’t speak to how much of an improvement this disc offers over 1080p, but it does look very good on its own terms. Bitrate is nice and high throughout. 

The Dolby Vision grade also offers a nice punch, letting the scenic natural colors shine with bright, well-saturated primaries and healthy skin tones. Black levels and shadows are in strong order with nice, inky black areas and impactful image depth. Whites are nice and crisp without issue. My only visual gripe is that, like the original movie, the CGI can look a bit weightless. Otherwise, this is an excellent visual presentation.

Similar to the visuals, Anaconda doesn’t really come to life sonically in Dolby Atmos until the action fully moves to the Amazon. There’s the action-packed opening to tease what’s coming, but then once we move to the “regular” lives of our characters, that Atmos impact notably scales back. Thankfully, we don’t endure these guys’ home lives for long, and the activity picks up once they get to the jungle. Once they start making their movie, that surround spread in the soundscape takes better shape. The overheads enjoy more purpose and distinct object placement rather than just being used to fill space. Surround channels have a more dynamic presence than just ticking off boxes. Once that action really picks up for the last act, the Atmos mix is in much better shape and becomes a real beast with more distinct object effects and stronger LFE. Maybe not demo-material, but still pretty good.

There is a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track, I only previewed that because…well…the Atmos is just better. The 5.1 track works in a pinch; the bigger action-focused scenes landed well, but there’s not much comparison.

On the run of extra features, we have some small, short, decent tidbits to constrict and swallow after the main feature is done. Nothing is particularly exhaustive; at less than half an hour all in, we get some highlight bits about the making of the film, but most of it is EPK fluff or is just inconsequential. 

• A Ride into Chaos with Jack and Paul (HD 5:18)
• Hiss-terical Outtakes and Bloopers (HD 3:10)
• Friends in the Wild: The Cast (HD 5:49)
• The Snake Charmer: Tom Rogmican (HD 4:41)
• Reinventing the Legend: Anaconda (HD 4:33)
• Deleted & Extended Scenes (HD 4:31 Total)
• Previews

2025’s Anaconda could have been a modern cult classic; the setup is there, but instead, it plays like a local bar tribute-band version of the 1997 fan favorite. It has some fun moments, it delivers some diverting entertainment, but it just doesn’t live up to the concept it's working with. I somewhat enjoyed it the first time, but the second time through that 98-minute runtime starts to feel pretty sluggish as we wait for something funny and/or genuinely exciting to happen. I’ll admit the last half hour is decent, but it’s a long wait to get there. On 4K UHD Anaconda slithers home with a solid Dolby Vision transfer and Atmos track to match while extras aren't much to speak of once you work through them. If you enjoyed the flick and need it for your collection, you’re getting a great-looking disc. So to that degree, this Anaconda is Worth A Look