I’m very happy to report the sigthing of a Snakes on a Plane Aerial Banner over San Jose this afternoon. It really made my day!
I was thinking of adapting a true story A popular doper who is an MD at a prison decides to ride a Jet Ski on the lake by his house.
Sturgeon on a Surgeon
You, sir, just made me snort tea.
If I had my way, I’d make a movie about people watching “Snakes on a Plane” as an in-flight movie. I’d call it “Snakes on a Plane on a Plane”.
Samuel L. Jackson is headed to Mars on a rocket full of snakes.
Reptiles on the Projectile
Hit them mutherfuckin’ retrorockets.
Ladders on a Plane
But only the British will get it.
This masterpiece isn’t as well known by the general public as it is by Dopers. The shorts were shown before a movie I watched a couple of weeks ago - most of the audience laughed at it. I think they believe it is a comedy. I fear it will really, really tank.
The previews make it appear it really does take itself seriously, and not in a funny way.
I disagree; from interviews with the production team, it seems to me like they’re plaing it camp, camp, and more camp. I think the creative forces are aware that a lot of people are coming to see it because it sounds like the cheesiest thing since “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians”. There was an article a few months(?) ago about how they went in for reshoots to add more nudity, violence, and lines like “I want these motherfuckin’ snakes off this motherfuckin’ plane!” Seems to me like they’re playing with it.
Thank goodness for that, cuz the previews make it look like it sux.
Don’t the British call it “Chutes and Ladders”? Or have I been whooshed?
I was at Comic-Con for that session about the movie. This was in a hall that seats 6500, and I think it did fill up. One correction to what kimera wrote; it was the director that spoke, rather than producers.
Anyway, I wanted to mention one thing about that session. Namely, that a 10-minute long clip from the middle of the film was shown on the hall’s video screens. My reaction to the clip was that I thought it was VERY intense, and it really impressed me. Based on that inspiration, I’m definitely planning to get to a screening ASAP after it opens.
My local theater has a great poster that I can’t find anywhere on the net. It’s a huge, subway-style poster that has panels, drawn like the panels in those emergency booklets they have on planes, you know the ones that show you to use the seat cusion as a floatation device, or to tuck your head between your legs. This one had things like (paraphrasing)
Use your tray table to catch and hold snakes (showing a drawing of a guy doing just that)
Use caution when stepping over dead bodies
And several others I can’t remember. It was very very cute. I looked around for a picture of it but I can’t find one.
My local theater has a great poster that I can’t find anywhere on the net. It’s a huge, subway-style poster that has panels, drawn like the panels in those emergency booklets they have on planes, you know the ones that show you to use the seat cushion as a floatation device, or to tuck your head between your legs. This one had things like (paraphrasing)
Use your tray table to catch and hold snakes (showing a drawing of a guy doing just that)
Use caution when stepping over dead bodies
And several others I can’t remember. It was very very cute. I looked around for a picture of it but I can’t find one.
Oh, sorry about the double post. It was taking forever to post so I used the opportunity to correct a typo then hit Submit again. Silly me.
Actually the Brits do call it Snakes and Ladders. Hasbro’s Chutes and Ladders® is an American version.
Here’s a good rule of thumb I’m paraphrasing from Scott McCloud: If there’s great buzz on an event still in the future, it’s the real deal.
If the buzz is limited to the immediate present, it’s merely hype.
This movie is hyped out the yang, has been for months, and there’s no way to match it.
There is no way to make Snakes On A Plane that will satisfy people unless you do a brilliant job showing what’s expected while simultaneously delivering some real surprises in plot, characterization and dialogue and skewering some expectations as well.
It’s not impossible. But nothing I’ve seen in the support cast or fillmmaking talent suggests this is likely to happen.
Everyone will have their hand in making this movie, including the fans: it will sound and look like it.
At its finest moments, this film will be absolutely mediocre.
A campy approach would be box office death for a movie like this, unless it managed to be entertainingly hyperviolent as well as campy.
Camp hasn’t been profitable since The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I’m going to give this movie one and a half stars. I’m prepared to grade downward from there.
I agree: this movie has been brilliantly marketed.
–Askia
RHPS wasn’t profitable when it came out, but there have been tons of cult movies since then.
Sight unseen?
I’ve seen them. Maybe I’m being too charitable, but it isn’t funny if they give the camp away in the previews.
I think I came at this dilemma (“is the movie actually gonna be any good”) in the wrong way in that last post, and I think the people who are saying “the movie can’t be as good as the hype” may not understand why people like me are so intent on seeing this thing. Let me try putting it this way: the movie will be more amusing for normal moviegoers, like the friends I’ve roped into this, if it’s self-mocking and self-aware. But whether it’s a self-aware B movie or a regular B movie, it’s still a B movie, which means a lot of us will have fun with it. If it’s not campy, I’ll have a ready supply of jokes. No matter how they actually make the movie, it’s still Snakes on a Plane. That’s why it’s bulletproof, and that’s what drew a lot of us.
Hate to do this, but I meant to respond earlier…
Snakin’ 2: Electric Bugaloo