This “waiting for the cliches” reminds me of a scene in a Roger Moore James Bond film, Live and Let Die. At one point Bond is trapped in the middle of a pond, on a small concrete island. The water is full of crocodiles and alligators, and the bad guys have tossed a bunch of chickens and pieces of meat onto the island, to encourage the critters to come up and snack on Bond. He grabs the goodies and tosses them back into the water, sort of in a line towards shore.
You can see where this is going. A guy in the seat beside me, when I saw this film in the theater, way back when, said “Oh no, they aren’t going to…” and sure enough they did.
The reptiles swarm the food, and Bond uses them as stepping stones as he runs to the shore, with jaws snapping as he passes.
“I am tired of these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane. Everyone strap in; we’re gonna open some damn windows.”
Just got back… what a MOTHERFUCKING FANTASTIC MOVIE. Loved it, start to finish, in all its utterly cheesy glory. There were thirty of us in the theater, so not a lot of hollering but a few appropriately-placed screams. The best part was watching a 70-something year old guy and his wife toddling to their seats just before the previews. I can’t help wondering what exactly they thought of the film.
But a big boo to the three couples who (separately) chose to bring their small children. The kids were quiet through the whole thing, but still- this is NOT a kid’s movie.
you with the face and I LOVED it. We cheered when he said The Line, and also in that early scene when Samuel L. grabbed that snake and smashed it against the floor, bad-ass like.
It was scary, gory, hilarious in all the right places, and very unrealistic–so all and all, thoroughly entertaining.
If you with the face and monstro liked it, I may have to eat some crow and get off my duff and check this out next weekend.
(I was hiking through parts of the Blue Ridge Mountains today, then watching kayakers on the Ocoee River. I’m too wiped to go tonight and I’m barbequeing tomorrow.)
I doubted this movie would be entertaining. I’m happy to be wrong.
I caught the 12:35 matinee today, and there were perhaps 10 people in the theater. With a good crowd, I can imagine that it would be terrific fun. With an empty theater,though, I give it a C+. Not that I’m complaining. It delievered on everything it promised…
“Asshole” and “slut” get yelled at every showing, but you also hear new AP every time. Last time, I heard something about a masturbating into a ceiling fan, and the joke almost killed me. [You’re correct that there’s a downside, since people seeing the movie for the first time probably miss 3/4 of the dialogue, if not more.]
I doubt I’ll see Snakes a third time because I loved the energy of the first-weekend crowd. At both showings, people yelled along with The Line, and they applauded the title twice (because of the way they staggered “Snakes… on a Plane.” Throughout the Friday screening, people kept hissing at the movie. Eventually they just hissed at whatever struck their fancy, not just snake-related things. I think the movie may be more fun to see at future midnight screenings when everybody goes nuts instead of half the crowd.
I was disappointed with the lack of a crowd during our showing (there were maybe 6 total in the theater), but we both loved the movie. It was still great even without the group experience.
I don’t get the use of spoiler boxes in this thread. I mean, it’s not like you don’t know what’s going to happen in the film because: A.) The title B.) It’s a Sam Jackson movie. C.) The more people know, the better lines they can shout.
There were a bunch of guys at the showing I went to wearing Hawaiian shirts, leis, and big sunglasses. Before the film started one of the guys in the audience did a “Snakes!” cheer (“Gimmie an ‘S’! Gimmie an ‘N’! Gimmie an ‘A’! Gimmie a ‘K’! Gimmie an ‘E’! Gimmie another ‘S’! What’s that spell? Where do we want 'em?”) which everybody joined in. One of the previews was for Black Moan Snake, also starring Samuel L. Jackson (and a very sexy looking Christina Ricci), which helped pump the crowd up.
When Jackson said, “I’m from Tennessee” everybody in the theater went nuts. Absolutely pointless and entertaining flick and the most fun I’ve had at the movies in ages.
That may be one weakness of combining a strategy of “let’s give it to the fans first” with a wide, rather than limited, release – you run through the Cult Following for the first few shows before enough WoM gets out to draw in a good ratio of regular moviegoers/screen.
I didn’t think it would happen, but I was sort of hoping that Nielsen or William Shatner (“there’s a man on the wing” - he thought he had problems!) would have a tiny cameo.
I was whispering to my husband which ones I thought would bite it and which wouldn’t. I have to admit,
when the dog got it, I laughed. Since “you can’t kill the dog” is one of the movie mantras, it surprised me. Especially since it was an adorable little pissant of a dog. I expected the rapper to die after he pushed an old lady aside. Then, when he made it, I expected his bodyguards to die instead. I knew the mother & baby wouldn’t die, and I knew the two boys wouldn’t, but I was surprised when the little kid got bit.
It may have been all that, but it bombed at the box office. $15 million gross for the weekend - including the Thursday special showings. That’s maybe half of predictions. And the box office plummeted on Saturday and Sunday. Only the most fervent of the fan base turned out for it. Everybody else seems to have been scared off by the hype rather than attracted by it.
All hat and no cattle, as Dan Rather or George Bush or somebody said.
