My curiosity got the best of me today, and I gave in and went to see Snakes on a Plane. It wasn't that bad. It wasn't that good, either.This is a spectacular statement of the obvious, but with a title like "Snakes on a Plane," you form pretty clear expectations of what you're going to see. And the movie delivers exactly what you expect.
You get Samuel L. Jackson, playing another badass to the hilt, delivering his lines with that trademarked sing-song shout.
You get plenty of over-the-top deaths. In the first 15 minutes of the movie, as we're introduced to the characters as they board the plane, you can see everything coming from miles away. The pins are being set up to be knocked down. You know this character is going to die in this way. You know that character is going to be called upon to save the life of that character. You know this character is plucky comic relief, and that character is meat for the slaughter.
You get big time camp. I know the camp meter pegged during the movie. I'm just not sure whether it was during the "Snake Vision" camera angles, or with the repeated snake-genital sight gags.
You get the most terrible CG snakes too-much-money can buy, unconvincingly jumping, hissing, and biting their way around the screen.
And yet, somehow, even though the whole thing is as familiar as a drive to work and as ridiculous as an Abbott and Costello routine... it's sort of entertaining. It's no masterpiece, but there's no denying that the movie essentially works. You'll laugh, you'll lean forward in your chair, you'll jump back into it. It's a fun ride. I think I give it a B-. But it's sort of a movie that defies thought.
I wonder now that it has finally been released, will we finally stop hearing about it?
3 comments:
What I think is most amazing is despite the huge amount of internet hype, the movie only garnered about $15 million at the box office the first weekend. Maybe the premise was all the reason for the hype.
On a side note, you got to love the New York City tabloids - NY Post & NY Daily News. Their cover on Monday both had pictures of John Mark Karr on the plane riding back to L.A. with the caption: "Snake On A Plane". Perfect!
did you know about
http://www.snakesonaplane.com/
you enter in some personal information and an automated Samuel L. Jackson phones your friend (or whatever) and tells them to see the movie. you can preview the message it's pretty funny stuff!
the mole
jono --
It's Serenity all over again. The internet hype on Serenity was so high that Firefly fans (including me) all got to deluding themselves that the movie was actually going to be a smash hit. Unfortunately, it turned out that even though it was a great movie, it didn't really "pull many people into the tent." It had an opening weekend of around $11 million.
So it has gone with Soa(MF'n)P. All the internet chatter, all the magazine coverage, it seemed like it was going to be huge. Instead, a meager $15 million opening. It's probably going to sink like a rock next week too, because all those people that were so twitterpated over it have surely gone to see it already.
the mole --
Yup, my movie-industry-buzz friend told me about the Sam Jackson voice mail reminder. Creepy stuff.
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