"Snakes on a Plane"? More like "Irony on the Decline"
Snakes on a Plane” opens Friday in theaters. This probably means nothing to (1) people who don’t spend 21 hours a day on the Internet, (2) people over the age of 35, and (3) people who don’t get into movies about Samuel L. Jackson cursing at high-flying jungle creatures for 90 minutes. You folks might as well stop reading now.
For everybody else, “Snakes on a Plane” is a big deal. How big? After nearly a year of Web-fueled hype, “Snakes on a Plane” is poised to become the “Citizen Kane” of movies about snakes running wild on commercial aircraft. And it likely will have the most profitable opening weekend ever for a movie starring a Burmese python.
More than the movie itself, “Snakes on a Plane” has been praised for revolutionizing how films are marketed online and altered based on suggestions from snarky movie geeks. For instance, an expletive-spiked one-liner uttered by Jackson was added to the movie at the insistence of online fans.
Some wonder how this will affect the future of entertainment. Instead of relying on talented writers, directors and actors to come up with decent movies, dudes who can’t convince the dumpy girl at the comic book store to catch a matinee of “The Descent” will be the new Hollywood power players.
Coming to the red carpet on Oscar Night 2007: the black trench coat and Frodo T-shirt ensemble. Tres chic.
The democratization of the movie-making process is all fine and dandy, I guess. It’s not as if input from the public will make mainstream movies any worse. After all, the Wayans brothers were handed tens of millions of dollars to make “Little Man,” which should be enough to inspire the populace to take up torches and pitchforks and ransack the nearest Cineplex. I’m pretty sure the guy from IT who changes my password every four weeks can do better than that.
What is more intriguing about “Snakes on a Plane” is how it’s the latest example of something I like to call The William Hung Phenomenon.
Read the rest of my latest Under 30 column here.
posted by Steve Hyden @ 4:11 PM
6 Comments:
I'm already working on the office-based sequel known as "Snakes in a Drawer." It all starts with a prop can of peanuts on a co-worker's birthday, but goes horribly, horribly wrong from there.
Everything about this flick is hilarious. I'm reading the press junket interviews, and I love how they're taking this so seriously.
Elsa Pataky, heroine:
"Maria is a mother trying to protect her baby from snakes, and what happens to her is what usually happens when snakes are loose on a plane."
(Yeah, you know, what usually happens. We're all familiar with such a scenario, right?)
Samuel L.:
"Snakes bite people in some interesting places that are funny. Then they bite people in some horrific places that aren’t so funny. When you see a snake attached to somebody’s eye, that’s not funny."
(Thanks for clearing that up, Sam.)
Yesterday there was an article on cnn about the amount of snake poopie the crew had to deal with. I just thought that was interesting.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/08/14/snake.poop.reut/index.html
As much as I've slammed this film over the past year, I fear I will be first in line tomorrow... oh, how the mighty have fallen.
well, i was indifferent toward this film, even smug at times when seeing it advertised. but now that i see keenan (or kal?!) is in it- my thoughts have changed. true talent people. true talent.
I gotta admit I'm curious, too. I saw the Tom Green movie (the title escapes me at the moment) because it was called the worst movie ever made. Sadly, it wasn't.
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