Snakes on a Plane

[Marshall_Hampton 5]

I'm not sure if this has already been suggested or not, so I am sorry if it already has been. This movie is just crazy and I would love to hear Jason just go off on it.

[ill Neal 42]

i'm actually interested in this. it's a bad movie, it had a major theatrical release, and there is some intrigue involved in the production and marketing. from what i understand this was a movie that was PG-13 and everyone laughed at it, then they added 3 samuel jackson FUCK!s to the trailer, and the internet demanded that they recut and dub the movie into an R film.

 

and even as an R it's a terrible movie (i saw it, like 5 years ago). it's a film whose legacy outlives the actual movie itself.

 

i'm all for it!

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

I saw this once in the theater when it came out, was pretty disappointed by how NOT crazy and over-the-top it was, and then have had a hard time remembering much of anything from it when it's popped up on TV. If ever there was a movie that failed to live up to the unrealistic expectations that the internet put on it, this was it. Once they decided to go R-rated with it, they should have gone CRAZY with the kills, but they were pretty standard and unimaginative. This wouldn't even be the best killer snake movie that the HDTGM crew has done if they ever do an episode on it.

[HipGuide 196]

yeah, this is in the showgirls category of a movie being talked about too much. just reminding me of this movie makes me frustrated, how poorly the studio handled it. i kind of think its too early to talk about it. i think a good part of hdtgm is the faux outrage the hosts show as to how bad/ridiculous a movie they've forgetten they've seen is. with this, they'll remember it and actually be outraged.

 

that being said, it's a good candidate. kenan thompson flying a plane because he plays shoot'em up video games.

[seanotron 2307]

The reason I'd object to this is not that it's been discussed too much but rather that it was a deliberately gimmicky movie. It was designed to be stupid. Where's the fun in dissecting that?

[inactiveuser501 168]

The reason I'd object to this is not that it's been discussed too much but rather that it was a deliberately gimmicky movie. It was designed to be stupid. Where's the fun in dissecting that?

 

That's what I always wondered about this movie. Was it marketed as an over the top unintentional comedy or an action movie, and did it succeed at either?

 

I remember passing by a TV and seeing a snake crawl up a Hawaiian man's leg on a plane, and I just assumed it was this movie. The only reason I would consider watching this is because Jullianna Margulies is in it, and I adore her. Why on earth is she in this? But that's a personal preference, not enough for a review.

[RyanSz 3140]

I remember seeing this in theaters after seein all the hype online for it. I did enjoy the human pinata scene with the gangster in the all white suit, just to get the image of the suit covered in blood. Then you had almost every cliche character you could think of on the plane: the old flight attendant on her last flight before retirement, the OCD rapper who forgot he's from the streets, the airhead Paris Hilton knockoff, the cowboy pilot who hits on everyone, the stuffy English businessman, the effeminate male flight attendant who ends up having a hot girlfriend, the fearless partner who is secretly afraid of the killer animal, and the asian guy who everyone thinks is involved with the plot because he knows karate, and so much more.

 

Then there was decent tongue in cheek stuff like the male attendant throwing a snake in the microwave and hitting the "snake" setting that got a chuckle out of me. There was no way this movie could live up to the reputation that had been built for it online, but I would love to see an episode based on this movie.

 

 

[ill Neal 42]

The reason I'd object to this is not that it's been discussed too much but rather that it was a deliberately gimmicky movie. It was designed to be stupid. Where's the fun in dissecting that?

 

see... the way i look at it is that it WASN'T deliberately gimmicky... the FILM itself wasn't very gimmicky. "pacific flight #597" or whatever was just a stupid movie. what was gimmicky was the publicity surrounding the movie, and the way the advertising was handled.

 

okay i take some of that back. yeah regardless of the title, how the movie was promoted, advertised, or received by audiences, the concept of "snakes on a plane" is pretty gimmicky when you get right down to it.

 

still though i feel it would be a good choice because gimmickiness aside, it was a film that was advertised, marketed, and post-produced in such a bizarre way that it warrants to ask the question "how did this get made?" and even as gimmicky as the final movie is/was, it did not nearly live up to the expectations that the public had (maybe they were duped by the advertising, or maybe they duped themselves?)

[BobbySchenkel 2]

I don't know if this movie has been suggested yet but it seems like this movie was made for HDTGM.

[thestray 361]

I remember being really excited for this movie and then finally seeing it and for the first time being kinda disappointed that a movie wasn't worse than it was. I liked the idea of the movie more than I liked the actual movie.

[PhillipMedoc 648]

Yeah, a few months or so before the movie's release, the basic concept became a viral joke being spread across social media. The marketing department realized they could work that angle, so advertising and trailers were edited in a way to make the film seem campy or at least B-movie-ish; I believe they even did some additional production (what, I am not sure of) after the film was done, just to somehow build on the buzz.

 

But what audiences got was not Sharknado, but a pretty mediocre action movie that was neither here nor there, and certainly not bad enough to be good. It got a very wide release, something like 3,500 theaters but made only $16 million on opening weekend. Bad word of mouth got it down under $1 million by the fourth week.

 

People WANTED a Sharknado. I think that's what the studio realized leading up to the film's release, but they weren't able to turn a mostly serious film with a silly premise into literally made of bonkers what am I even watching.

[seanotron 2307]

The weird thing is, this movie wasn't critically reviled. It actually sits at a respectable 68% on RT.

 

Also, this happens (NSFW)

 

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1130714/nice_sex_scene_with_comedya_tragedy_from_snakes_on_the_plane/

[seanotron 2307]

I believe they even did some additional production (what, I am not sure of) after the film was done, just to somehow build on the buzz.

 

Believe it or not, the reshoots were actually to make the movie R instead of the original PG-13.

[thestray 361]

The weird thing is, this movie wasn't critically reviled. It actually sits at a respectable 68% on RT.

 

Also, this happens (NSFW)

 

http://www.metacafe....s_on_the_plane/

 

I can understand that, because despite the absurd premise I don't think it's that much worse than most mediocre action/thriller type films. Like it's at the very least watchable. I also feel like a lot of reviewers probably wanted to be "in on it", so they didn't want to trash a movie that was already kinda making fun of itself. Low hanging fruit.

[AprilFoolsRebel 457]

I saw this once in the theater when it came out, was pretty disappointed by how NOT crazy and over-the-top it was, and then have had a hard time remembering much of anything from it when it's popped up on TV. If ever there was a movie that failed to live up to the unrealistic expectations that the internet put on it, this was it. Once they decided to go R-rated with it, they should have gone CRAZY with the kills, but they were pretty standard and unimaginative. This wouldn't even be the best killer snake movie that the HDTGM crew has done if they ever do an episode on it.

 

You nailed it exactly.

 

The marketing leading up was AMAZING! I had friends send me the "Samuel Jackson voice mail" and used the thing myself. Brilliant. But the movie? Just...was.

 

It was almost like they treated everything in a fairly "real" way as opposed to just embracing teh stupidity of the premise and going all out. I bet if they had more people who were really good at improv as opposed to a script, it would have gone off the rails the way you wanted it to.

[sillstaw 414]

I think the problem with the movie trying to be in on the joke is that, by the time everybody involved decided to do so, the movie was near completion. They couldn't go back and make the whole movie a big in-joke (which might have worked better, or about as well, who knows), so they could only change a few things here and there. They could add in a topless woman, they could add in a guy screaming, "Fucking snake! Get off my dick!" and they could add in Samuel L. Jackson saying that he was tired of something (I only vaguely recall this line), but they couldn't change enough of the movie to make them feel like anything other than last-minute additions.

[jarrycanada 2483]

To me this movie was no different then Black Snake Moan. same sorta movie. Oh look I got a white trash girl chained up by a black man. I enjoyed both of these movies for what they are. Mindless entertainment.

 

I like Samuel L. Jackson and will watch any stupid movie he's in.

[sillstaw 414]

To me this movie was no different then Black Snake Moan. same sorta movie. Oh look I got a white trash girl chained up by a black man. I enjoyed both of these movies for what they are. Mindless entertainment.

 

No way. "Black Snake Moan" is a lot better than "Snakes on a Plane."

 

Although it would've been pretty funny if it had been called "Snakes on a Chain."

[Lando 2019]

Skanks on a Chain

[PhillipMedoc 648]

No way. "Black Snake Moan" is a lot better than "Snakes on a Plane."

I meant to see that at one point but Christina Ricci reminds me way too much of an ex. Is it worth watching? It's on Netflix.

 

There used to be a neat promotional website when the film came out which I can't find now. It had this flash game where you could make a blues "song" in a kind of looping interface with guitar samples and some Samuel Jackson voice clips. It was silly but you could come up with some really weird shit if you tried.

[jarrycanada 2483]

Black Snake Moan is great entertainment. if your looking for a friday night movie you could not do better. -cat & beard

[wyldride 285]

Certainly not the Black Snake Moan trailer: http://telly.com/11LS1DA

[sillstaw 414]

I meant to see that at one point but Christina Ricci reminds me way too much of an ex. Is it worth watching? It's on Netflix.

 

I liked it. It's kind of pulpy, so if that's your thing, go for it.