Thursday, August 24, 2006

Snakes On A Motherf#$%!n Plane!

That's right, I bought into it*. I went to see SoaP (as it is being referred to on the Interweb these days). And as you will most likely here from anyone else who also sat through it, it actually was not that bad. It was enjoyable (it was like a really long version of "When pets attack" Snake Edition). You might hear a lot of things about this movie. That it really did not do that well despite all the internet hype surrounding it (Opening Weekend gross was $13.8m). That the movie delivers only what it says and nothing else. This is pretty true, the movie ONLY delivers Snakes on a plane which I think was actually the refreshing part, for many action thrillers try to be a lot grander than they really are. Action movies are for action, dramatic movies are for drama. There can be combinations of course, but too many films find themselves trying to be that crossover and really just making fools out of themselves.

This movie does not do that. They give you a basic plot that takes all of 5 minutes to explain. Then they set up the relationships which is about another 10-15 mins, then straight to the Snakes which are freaking ferocious thanks to CGI (If you ever see a snake with horns you are done for is one of the lessons I took from this movie). I liked the lack of complex characters here. You want a simple movie where characters are only supposed to be there for fodder, make them all uninteresting archetypes. The classic yet non-existent buxsome horny beauties that are flight attendants (with the obligatory gay man as one). The music star, the rich bitch, the rude man, woman with baby and horny as fuck couple. Everyone was at the party and it was so perfect. Relationships were built quickly so the movie could really get to the point which were the snakes on the plane. I guess that is why I enjoyed it so much, I went to see snakes and I got snakes. Has Hollywood figured out that instead of window dressing crappy movies, they should just tell you what your going to see and let people make their own decisions? Very doubtful, what's possible was that this movie was so utterly ridiculous that it lent itself to nothing other than the obvious. It is well known that the group behind the movie at one point tried to change the name to "Pacific Air 101" which would have had the movie netting maybe 2 million opening weekend. I wouldn't go see that movie, but snakes on a plane? I would actually watch it again, were it not for all those blood curdling snakes. Also adding to the experience was the lack of people in the theater. Apparently me and this chic and 4 of her friends were the only ones that wanted to see the movie, much less cared that it was there.

*I actually did not pay for the movie. I had some movie coupons that expired after this month that I had to use, but I would have probably seen it anyway.

1 comment:

Reel Fanatic said...

Action movies are for action .. amen to that! .. I wasn't sure to expect from this after all the hype, but it definitely delivered all I was looking for .. just a big ball of B-movie fun