India, Dec. 26 -- Hollywood's relationship with nostalgia has long crossed from affection into dependency, and Anaconda is another reminder of how thin that line has become. The 1997 Anaconda was never a good film, but it was at least a memorable one - a glossy, star-driven creature feature whose stiff dialogue and rubbery effects accidentally turned it into a cult curiosity.

Nearly three decades later, the new iteration positions itself as a knowing, self-aware reinvention, but clever intent doesn't always translate to compelling cinema. Rather than retelling the original, the film follows Doug (Jack Black), a once-aspiring filmmaker now stuck shooting wedding videos in Buffalo, who is roped into making a low-budget reboot of Anaconda b...