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It was a good laugh, but I'd say it was considerably overrated with the Internet hype, as much things are these days. If you just take it for what it is, essentially a cheesy, funny B-movie sort of thing, you can have great fun watching it.
I went to the 9:30pm showing, and there was me and 12 mates, and then about 10 other people dotted about the cinema, so we were able to move into the "premier" seats section, where about two people and a dead dog were sitting.
The opening sequence left me not terribly optimistic. The pointless opening sequence just left me salivating for the snakes.
Cue another 20+ minutes of build-up before the snakes are even released. This is probably my main complaint with the film. I, and I'm fairly certain most people, didn't really give a crap about the threadbare plot, and just wanted to get to the bread and butter of the film - the snakes. We have to sit through almost 30 minutes of various scenes before the snakes are even released, and knowing the film was only 100 minutes without credits, I was getting more and more anxious that almost a third of the film was build-up.
However, once the snakes were released, the awesomeness began. If the build-up had been trimmed by five or ten minutes, and these minutes filled with people dying in more wacky ways, I'd probably have given the film a 9/10.
It truly was a marvel seeing people get bitten in their lower extremities, get bitten on the breast, practically get sexually molested by snakes, get constricted and devoured, get bit in the eye (and subsequently see the eyeball ooze out through the guy's hands). The film was more graphic than I was expecting for a 15, but to its betterment - it created a number of laughs with the small crowd, and really added to the experience.
The film was riddled with cliches, but in a really funny way. You've got your characters who are so stereotypical - the uptight British guy, the air hostesses who are on their last flight/tour before retirement, the innocent children, the rapper and his entourage, and supposedly homosexual male air hostess, the list goes on. It was basically a self-parody, and whilst a lot of people didn't like this, the fact it was a self-aware parody of B-movies didn't really matter to me. It may've been trying too hard to be a cult film, but it was a lot of fun.
You've also got the "virtually every actor/actress is insanely attractive", but this makes it all the more amusing when some of them get killed by the snakes.
Samuel L Jackson deserves mention for his performance here. He didn't actually have a large number of lines, really, but he delivered his role competently, and most of his awesomeness emanated from his actions - e.g. attacking a fleet of snakes with a tazer, and also grabbing a snake and whipping it around a chair to save another passenger.
Kenan Thompson also deserves a mention. Most people will know him from Kenan & Kel (and perhaps more recently, "Fat Albert"), but he added a lot of comedy to the film. Through all of the rumours of him and Kel Mitchell dying in a car accident, it was great seeing him back on hilariously bad form. It was nice to see him get such a meaty role, aswell.
I remember when I first saw the trailer for SOAP a good 8 months ago, and the CG of the snakes looked absolutely unforgivably bad. Let me say that for the most part, it was very impressively done. The snakes were noticably CG, but the animation in particular looked very slick, and stylised in a way that it didn't look crap. The attacks on the passengers looked very convincing.
If we're going to go into semantics, the film also (perhaps accidentally) had a pro-gaming message. Through recent films (e.g. Inside Man) denigrating games or making them look like the playtoys of idiots, it's nice to see a film that basically says "if you're a gamer, you can land a plane".
Occasionally, the film cuts to those on the ground trying to solve the situation, but I was a little irritated by the type of film stock used here - it had a lot of trails on it and looked really annoying to watch. I don't know if it was something wrong in post-production, but it looked terrible, especially when they kept cutting back and forth between lovely-looking plane footage, and grotty-looking night-time scenes.
The final act of the film was absolutely preposterous - one of the most implausible things I've ever seen, but it was all in good fun. SOAP isn't a film about realism - it's about what's most satisfying for the viewer, and if you remember that this is just meant to be fun, then the fact that the passengers of the plane survive a massively cataclismic event occuring to the plane, then the finale should be satisfying.
The film did occasionally attempt to have a heart, and I think they could've added a bit more emotion to the film by killing a major character. I'd heard reviews say "there are unexpected deaths", but I really didn't feel this. There's a moment near the end where it seemed as though a real shocker was pulled out of the hat, but this was quickly alleviated.
One of the better things about the film was the number of false climaxes - they were for the most part genuinely convincing and great fun to watch. Just when you thought everything was fine, another danger presents itself.
Samuel L's famous "I've had it with these motherBLEEPin' snakes on my motherBLEEPin' plane!" seemed a little understated, too. I was hoping for him to scream it when snakes start pouring through a hole to him or something, but it seemed a little too calm.
On occasion, the writer tried to give the film some detail and edge to it - like explaining why the snakes are attacking when provoked. I thought this would suck and just seem tacked-on, but it was handled well and actually added some substance to the film.
The final moments of the film before the credits hit also stank of cheese - it's amusing in a way, but also obscenely silly.
I'd heard that the film was ridden with emo music, but I'm glad to see it wasn't - it was instead theatrical music. I've no idea if they removed this in earlier edits, or this was just some propogated rumour, but the film would've been a lot worse if I had to listen to Panic! At The Disco and Fall Out Boy whilst Samuel L Jackson kicks a**e.
After the film actually ends, the music video for the film is shown in a little box, and my friend shouted "At least they left the emo crap til the end!", which I suppose was a good thing.
Summary: If you don't expect something overly amazing, it's a fun film. It suffers from too much of a buildup, but it's a great laugh if you go with as many mates as possible, and you really don't have to think about it much at all. I'll most likely pick the DVD up eventually.
8/10.
I went to the 9:30pm showing, and there was me and 12 mates, and then about 10 other people dotted about the cinema, so we were able to move into the "premier" seats section, where about two people and a dead dog were sitting.
The opening sequence left me not terribly optimistic. The pointless opening sequence just left me salivating for the snakes.
Cue another 20+ minutes of build-up before the snakes are even released. This is probably my main complaint with the film. I, and I'm fairly certain most people, didn't really give a crap about the threadbare plot, and just wanted to get to the bread and butter of the film - the snakes. We have to sit through almost 30 minutes of various scenes before the snakes are even released, and knowing the film was only 100 minutes without credits, I was getting more and more anxious that almost a third of the film was build-up.
However, once the snakes were released, the awesomeness began. If the build-up had been trimmed by five or ten minutes, and these minutes filled with people dying in more wacky ways, I'd probably have given the film a 9/10.
It truly was a marvel seeing people get bitten in their lower extremities, get bitten on the breast, practically get sexually molested by snakes, get constricted and devoured, get bit in the eye (and subsequently see the eyeball ooze out through the guy's hands). The film was more graphic than I was expecting for a 15, but to its betterment - it created a number of laughs with the small crowd, and really added to the experience.
The film was riddled with cliches, but in a really funny way. You've got your characters who are so stereotypical - the uptight British guy, the air hostesses who are on their last flight/tour before retirement, the innocent children, the rapper and his entourage, and supposedly homosexual male air hostess, the list goes on. It was basically a self-parody, and whilst a lot of people didn't like this, the fact it was a self-aware parody of B-movies didn't really matter to me. It may've been trying too hard to be a cult film, but it was a lot of fun.
You've also got the "virtually every actor/actress is insanely attractive", but this makes it all the more amusing when some of them get killed by the snakes.
Samuel L Jackson deserves mention for his performance here. He didn't actually have a large number of lines, really, but he delivered his role competently, and most of his awesomeness emanated from his actions - e.g. attacking a fleet of snakes with a tazer, and also grabbing a snake and whipping it around a chair to save another passenger.
Kenan Thompson also deserves a mention. Most people will know him from Kenan & Kel (and perhaps more recently, "Fat Albert"), but he added a lot of comedy to the film. Through all of the rumours of him and Kel Mitchell dying in a car accident, it was great seeing him back on hilariously bad form. It was nice to see him get such a meaty role, aswell.
I remember when I first saw the trailer for SOAP a good 8 months ago, and the CG of the snakes looked absolutely unforgivably bad. Let me say that for the most part, it was very impressively done. The snakes were noticably CG, but the animation in particular looked very slick, and stylised in a way that it didn't look crap. The attacks on the passengers looked very convincing.
If we're going to go into semantics, the film also (perhaps accidentally) had a pro-gaming message. Through recent films (e.g. Inside Man) denigrating games or making them look like the playtoys of idiots, it's nice to see a film that basically says "if you're a gamer, you can land a plane".
Occasionally, the film cuts to those on the ground trying to solve the situation, but I was a little irritated by the type of film stock used here - it had a lot of trails on it and looked really annoying to watch. I don't know if it was something wrong in post-production, but it looked terrible, especially when they kept cutting back and forth between lovely-looking plane footage, and grotty-looking night-time scenes.
The final act of the film was absolutely preposterous - one of the most implausible things I've ever seen, but it was all in good fun. SOAP isn't a film about realism - it's about what's most satisfying for the viewer, and if you remember that this is just meant to be fun, then the fact that the passengers of the plane survive a massively cataclismic event occuring to the plane, then the finale should be satisfying.
The film did occasionally attempt to have a heart, and I think they could've added a bit more emotion to the film by killing a major character. I'd heard reviews say "there are unexpected deaths", but I really didn't feel this. There's a moment near the end where it seemed as though a real shocker was pulled out of the hat, but this was quickly alleviated.
One of the better things about the film was the number of false climaxes - they were for the most part genuinely convincing and great fun to watch. Just when you thought everything was fine, another danger presents itself.
Samuel L's famous "I've had it with these motherBLEEPin' snakes on my motherBLEEPin' plane!" seemed a little understated, too. I was hoping for him to scream it when snakes start pouring through a hole to him or something, but it seemed a little too calm.
On occasion, the writer tried to give the film some detail and edge to it - like explaining why the snakes are attacking when provoked. I thought this would suck and just seem tacked-on, but it was handled well and actually added some substance to the film.
The final moments of the film before the credits hit also stank of cheese - it's amusing in a way, but also obscenely silly.
I'd heard that the film was ridden with emo music, but I'm glad to see it wasn't - it was instead theatrical music. I've no idea if they removed this in earlier edits, or this was just some propogated rumour, but the film would've been a lot worse if I had to listen to Panic! At The Disco and Fall Out Boy whilst Samuel L Jackson kicks a**e.
After the film actually ends, the music video for the film is shown in a little box, and my friend shouted "At least they left the emo crap til the end!", which I suppose was a good thing.
Summary: If you don't expect something overly amazing, it's a fun film. It suffers from too much of a buildup, but it's a great laugh if you go with as many mates as possible, and you really don't have to think about it much at all. I'll most likely pick the DVD up eventually.
8/10.
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I loved this film. I really shouldnt have done because it was rubbish if Im being honest. It was just another one of those "monster" movies like anaconda, lake placid, that one about the squid (possibly "the squid"). It was a pathetic plot, had bad acting and a complete ignorance of logic and the laws of physics yet strangely thats why I enjoyed it so much.
Usually with this type of film, the internet jokes turn up after it has been released. This time around the jokes where there first. Samuel L Jacksons famous expletive line for example, was only included because of the internet jokes.
All of the hype made it seem like the film was supposed to be pathetic and idiotic which it is, in bucket loads. This makes you feel satisfied because you got exactly what you wanted.
Plus, Kenan is in it!!!
Usually with this type of film, the internet jokes turn up after it has been released. This time around the jokes where there first. Samuel L Jacksons famous expletive line for example, was only included because of the internet jokes.
All of the hype made it seem like the film was supposed to be pathetic and idiotic which it is, in bucket loads. This makes you feel satisfied because you got exactly what you wanted.
Plus, Kenan is in it!!!
Pah... A B-movie shouldn't be in cinemas making millions then :-D
Although, for this film, I'll make an exception.
Although, for this film, I'll make an exception.
Chaos wrote:
> And the fact that it's
> supposed to be 'serious' and/or 'tense' makes it even funnier.
No, no it isn't. It's effectively a B-movie. No one takes it seriously, Samuel L Jackson doesn't even take it seriously.
Look
> And the fact that it's
> supposed to be 'serious' and/or 'tense' makes it even funnier.
No, no it isn't. It's effectively a B-movie. No one takes it seriously, Samuel L Jackson doesn't even take it seriously.
Look
I saw it last night. Funniest thing I've seen for a while. It did take too long to get going though. We were all muttering to each other "when are the damn snakes going to show up!?".
9/10
9/10
Two, pft, you should have been in my dream.
:p
that is scary though.
:p
that is scary though.
Just like in real life... [URL]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5277238.stm[/URL] :-o
I had a dream the other night that I went to see it, and for some reason which I assume was to add to the experience, the cinema was littered with poisonous snakes. Somehow they ended up at home too.
Of course at the time, it was all perfectly normal that they should release poisonous snakes into a cinema full of people.
I woke up feeling quite uncomfortable.
I'm not going to see it.
There you go.
Of course at the time, it was all perfectly normal that they should release poisonous snakes into a cinema full of people.
I woke up feeling quite uncomfortable.
I'm not going to see it.
There you go.
Best bit had to be the guy chucking the womans dog at the biggest snake there, that was just sheer comedy. All throughout the film she and her dog have fought there way through piles of snakes only for the guy to throw the dog at the snake, priceless.
I went to see it today with about 10 friends, it was the funniest thing I've seen in the cinema for ages. And the fact that it's supposed to be 'serious' and/or 'tense' makes it even funnier.
Critically a terrible film.
As a joke? The best film to go and see with mates.
Critically a terrible film.
As a joke? The best film to go and see with mates.
Ah, that's actually quite helpful. I thought you'd rate it as a cheesey and ridiculous film with no merits, as opposed to something genuinely funny and tense. In short, I expected the film to be like Anaconda or look about as pointless as Flight Plan.
I might try and pick up the DVD cheaply to give it a view.
I might try and pick up the DVD cheaply to give it a view.
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