The new meta-comedy Anaconda, which opened Christmas Day, is one sweet treat.

The film, which stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd, does a lot in its 99 minute runtime. It’s a remake of the 1997 Jennifer Lopez/Ice Cube movie Anaconda, a meta-commentary about the 1997 movie Anaconda, a sly movie about making a movie remaking the 1997 movie Anaconda, and a sweet film about long-time friends coming together to make their childhood dreams come true. As Black and Rudd’s characters would say, this movie has “Themes!” to spare.

In this iteration of Anaconda, Black plays Doug and Rudd plays Griff, two wannabe filmmakers that let go of their dream as they grew older, though they both obviously never wanted to. Doug makes wedding videos that he tells himself are films. Griff is a struggling actor that, in the beginning of the film, loses a gig because he won’t let himself be directed into the background of a scene.

As they celebrate Doug’s birthday, they watch one of their long-lost productions, along with their friends Claire (Newton) and Kenny (Zahn). Griff tells them he was gifted the rights to Anaconda, and proposes a trip to the Amazon to make a new version of their favorite film.

It takes some convincing, but soon all four are on board and they head to Brazil where they’ve charted a boat to take them down the Amazon and hired a snake handler named Santiago (the delightful Selton Mello) to help them achieve a level of snakey realism for their severely under-budgeted film. Unbeknownst to them, their ship has been hijacked by the mysterious Ana (Daniela Melchior) who has an agenda of her own, but allows them to stay on her boat as she pursues her own mission, all the while being chased by mysterious men.

The four of them make their movie, but in the spirit of the original, they find themselves at odds with not only the men pursuing Ana, but a whopping great anaconda with a taste for filmmakers. There is carnage galore in this, for all that it’s a comedy, so fair warning. But the gore is nicely balanced by genuine laughs.

This meta-remake takes great pains to be a loving homage to the original, including adding a few cameos that don’t detract too much from the main story. But along the way, this new Anaconda has such sweet and silly fun with what could have been a rote remake of the first movie. Black and Rudd especially have great chemistry, and do seem like they’ve known each other forever. And Zahn hams it up as their simple, stoned buddy who finds himself stretched way out of his comfort zone. Newton gets to have less fun with her role, alas, but does get to go beyond the token female character assignment.

Tom Gormican directed Anaconda and given that he directed the fantastic The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which starred Nicolas Cage as Nic Cage, it’s not surprising that he has the tone of this meta film within a film exactly right.

Anaconda 2025 is no Anaconda 1997. But that’s really a good thing. There’s already an Anaconda 1997 and to try to recapture that magic is completely unnecessary. Instead, Anaconda 2025 serves up a holiday confection that really hits the spot and is the perfect accompaniment to whatever you’re celebrating this season.