OK, I know the premise sounds like the sort of thing Ed Wood might have come up with (“OK, so there are these snakes, right? And they’re on a plane! Throw in Samuel L Jackson and then market the thing on this newfangled Interweb widget, and we’re in business!”), but I really don’t understand why the whole “Snakes On A Plane!” thing has turned into a massive Internet Meme.
I mean, I adore Bad Movies (My DVD collection is full of Ed Wood movies and appallingly dubbed Hong Kong Action Movies), but I just can’t get worked up about Snakes On A Plane.
Anyone care to enlighten me as to what the big deal is, or is it just “One of those things” you either get or you don’t?
(And yes, I will be going to see the film when it comes out!)
It’s the beautifully to-the-point title that I like. ‘Die Hard’ should have been titled ‘Dude Crawling Through Air Ducts’. ‘King Kong’ should have been ‘Big-Ass Ape’.
I hope there’s more movies in the future where the title is simply the short concept they pitched to the studio.
Snakes on a Plane is so anticipated because it’s going to be one of the greatest movies ever made. This is a movie that’s going to be held up with The Godfather, Citizen Kane, and Casablanca as one of the great works of cinematic genius. The difference is that this time we know it’s coming; we can anticipate going to the movies and seeing a picture that represents the very apex of human creativity.
The title just induces giggles. Add in Samuel L. Jackson, and it sounds like a cult classic, like Killer Klowns from Outer Space.
And sometimes, things just become funny with repetition. Once is amusing, twice is giddy, fifty, you’re rolling on the floor. Remember the whole “All your base” crap? It wasn’t that funny, it just became funny.
I just wish I weren’t deathly snake-phobic, because then I could see it and giggle.
The greatest movie title ever was Robot Ninja: tragically, the film doesn’t seem to have lived up to the brilliance of its name, and the definitive movie about a robot that’s a ninja - a Robot Ninja, if you will - has yet to be made.
A few years ago, there was this absurd Saturday Night Live sketch (John Goodman was hosting) where, for no explained reason, cobras get loose in the passenger cabin of a jetliner.
WILL FERRELL: Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to inform you that there are now eleven cobras lookse in the passenger cabin . . .
Actually, the original title was Negro In First Class, but that only scared a few people in red states that don’t go to movies so they changed the title.
(Note that the use of “on” in the context of aircraft is an idiom for “in”. Cf. noted linguist George Carlin: About this time, someone is telling you to get on the plane. “Get on the plane. Get on the plane.” I say, “f*** you, I’m getting in the plane.”)
