Snakes on a Plane
January 19th, 2007
From pitch to meme to hype to backlash, what’s left half a year later is a gleefully dumb B picture in the tradition of Arachnophobia and Tremors. In the middle of yet another awards season stuffed with the usual overpraised mediocrities and a few now-familiar great movies, this was a refreshingly unpretentious good time. As much a throw-back to the abandoned trash filmmaking of the 70s as The Good German was to Casablanca.
Snakes on a Plane. David R. Ellis, 2006. ***
[tags]samuel l jackson, 3 stars, film, planes, snakes, horror, action, julianna margulies, trash[/tags]
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
January 3rd, 2004
Wow, what a fucking waste. You see, Alan Moore’s comic book is witty, literate, and surprisingly rich in character–one of the best comics of the last few years. The movie reduces it to a silly, boring B-picture with nothing to recommend it: not the visuals, not the by-the-book action scenes, not Sean Connery’s ham-fisted acting, not the laughable plot. Captain Nemo looks like a guy in a Halloween costume, with fake beard and turban, the CGI is mediocre, and somebody thought it was a good idea to add Tom Sawyer and Dorian Gray to the lineup of Victorian heroes. Trash trash trash, and a goddamn shame. Somebody like Peter Jackson could have done miracles with Alan Moore’s original material. Let’s hope when they finally do Watchmen, they don’t botch it like this.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Stephen Norrington, 2003. *
