Search - SnakeMan on DVD

"You Come For The Gift?"

Robert I. Hedges | 05/26/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Great. Another giant snake movie. This one is generally much more trying than the "Anaconda" or "Python" films, and has among the worst CGI I have ever seen in my life. I really shouldn't be too shocked...as soon as I saw Boaz Davidson's producer credit I knew this would be tough slogging.

The film, set in Brazil and actually made there (for which I give the production team credit), is a story of mysterious snake people who live for hundreds of years and the evil corporate goons who want to steal and exploit their secret. While "Anaconda" and "Python" (and other similar movies) have had menacingly large snakes, here the producers pull out all the stops and devise a humongous seven-headed snake to guard the secret of immortality. Stephen Baldwin is staggeringly banal in the lead role, but is frequently upstaged in the overacting department by most of the supporting cast, particularly Larry Day.

The film opens with a helicopter crash in a jungle (which will seem very familiar to Boaz Davidson aficionados), and progresses to scientists being tormented by the snake with homage paid to many creature features before. The heroine, Susan, is rapidly kidnapped by the natives, and tries to free herself by making a deal with her evil capitalist bosses to return a mummy that was taken from the snake people. Needless to say, this doesn't work out as she expected, and results in a mini invasion of evil corporate types, which, of course, as any experienced viewer of this genre grasps means that the snake chow has arrived.

Throughout the movie there are a variety of native actors who actually give the best performances of the film, despite their ludicrous costumes. In the end the giant murderous multi-headed reptile turns out to be the good guy (sort of) and helps the two lead characters find love in what might be one of the most ridiculously implausible yet noxiously saccharine scenes ever. To further continue the obvious plotlines, the evil guy gets his just reward: being drawn and quartered by a giant snake is certainly original punishment.

At the end of this film I felt relief that it was over, but I must confess that it did have more originality than most other Davidson projects that I have seen, so I gave it two stars. The disc also contains a "Behind the Scenes" feature in which cast and crew offer platitudes about what a great movie "Snakeman" is. While my opinion is that they are decidedly incorrect, I think the only genuinely insightful quote in the extras is from Stephen Baldwin, who says "I would have liked my character to have been eight pounds lighter." If that's all he wants changed about this film, I think I'll pass on his future artistic endeavors."

And You Thought "Python" was bad!!????

Graboidz | Westminster, Maryland | 07/25/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"If you ever have the unfortunate experience of seeing the Robert Englund dud "Python" then consider yourself lucky! I have seen "Python" and thought "Well at least I can say I've seen the worst Large Reptile movie ever made!" And in my blissful ignorance someone set out to make an even worse large-reptile film.....featuring a Baldwin brother to boot! "Snakeman" is awful. It's not really a horror film as much as it tries to be a Jungle adventure flick. You get Southern California masquerading as Brazil this time, with some really unconvincing natives running around sporting more whicker than an IKEA catalog! I think they should have just gotten a big rubber snake and run through the woods with it, that would have been a little more convincing than the cartoony-CGI effects that are attempted here.
If you see this stinker sitting on the shelf of your local Blockbuster for $1.99 like I did, you may be tempted to pick it up out of curiosity.....don't. It may be a small monetary investment, but it's almost 2 hours you can never get back!!"