Maybe it sounded better at the pitch meeting. A wedding videographer with directorial aspirations (Jack Black) and a struggling actor (Paul Rudd) get it in their heads to do a reboot of their favorite creature feature, 1997’s Anaconda. That movie, in case you were lucky enough to miss it, is today viewed as one of cinema’s worst-ever horror/action atrocities, though it did see some brief midnight-movie buzz. The numerous sequels were even worse.

Movies like this are made by people who think that if you convince a few respected comic actors with pre-sold likeability to take part, everything else will hilariously fall into place. No need for a coherent script or anything above screen-saver CGI.

Let me be clear: This meta-remake is not a stupid movie. It’s an aggressive, irritating, moronic, brain-dead, predictable, insipid and pointless stupid movie. Even late-scene cameos by Ice Cube and J-Lo from the 1997 film fall flat. And should you momentarily forget that you’re watching a movie-within-a-movie, it reminds you every eight minutes or so how clever it is. (99 min)