When Sean Jones is on holiday in Honolulu he sees an American state's attorney murdered by none other than notorious gangster Chen Leong and finds himself hot property with the FBI. An attempt on Sean's life is all it takes him to convince to testify against Leong and Agent Neville Flynn is assigned to escort him back to LA. With a decoy flight to distract Leong, Flynn and Jones commandeer first class and prepare for a comfortable flight while everyone else on the red-eye flight sits in coach. However word has got to Leong and, with all other options exhausted, Leong arranges for a box of poisonous snakes to be dosed into a frenzy with pheromones and then released once the plane is in the air.
The film that the internet made. Understandably the wonderfully schlocky title got the internet excited and much of the general populace as well and, probably not believing their luck, the same producers who wanted to call it "Flight 121" released it without letting the critics get at it first. This was a sensible move because, aside the fan boys maintaining it is the greatest "bad" movie ever made, the film is actually not as bad, good, fun or scary as it really should have been. I'm not entirely sure of the reason for this because Tremors showed that making a success of silly b-movie fare and I think everyone hoped that this would be the same silly perhaps, but fun with it.
At times this is the case but other times it doesn't work and the mood is inconsistent throughout. At times it seems to be trying to embrace the silliness of the material but for too much of it the tone is serious and earnest expecting us to take it that way and giving us nothing else if we don't. I assume that we should thank the internet campaign for this because the inconsistency does feel like it has come from added material, reshoots and so on. I'm not sure but I'm guessing the humour and the stuff that works has been added once the internet jokes etc began to take effect just a shame that so little of it is like this.
The cast are generally average at best. Jackson enjoys himself and it must slightly frustrate him that it is not the silly b-movie I think he hoped for. He get "the" line of course and a few other good moments but generally he just concentrates on being solid and the presence he effortlessly is. Below him there is very little. Margulies is hardly a star and nobody else has much to do other than represent a particular group (mothers, lovers, newly weds, jerks etc) to be fed up to the snakes one after another.
So, hype aside, this is a so-so b-movie but with a bit of fun and cheek, it could have been a good one. The title will continue to buy it a reputation beyond what it deserves for a while but apart from the fan boys, many casual viewers will be left unimpressed.
The film that the internet made. Understandably the wonderfully schlocky title got the internet excited and much of the general populace as well and, probably not believing their luck, the same producers who wanted to call it "Flight 121" released it without letting the critics get at it first. This was a sensible move because, aside the fan boys maintaining it is the greatest "bad" movie ever made, the film is actually not as bad, good, fun or scary as it really should have been. I'm not entirely sure of the reason for this because Tremors showed that making a success of silly b-movie fare and I think everyone hoped that this would be the same silly perhaps, but fun with it.
At times this is the case but other times it doesn't work and the mood is inconsistent throughout. At times it seems to be trying to embrace the silliness of the material but for too much of it the tone is serious and earnest expecting us to take it that way and giving us nothing else if we don't. I assume that we should thank the internet campaign for this because the inconsistency does feel like it has come from added material, reshoots and so on. I'm not sure but I'm guessing the humour and the stuff that works has been added once the internet jokes etc began to take effect just a shame that so little of it is like this.
The cast are generally average at best. Jackson enjoys himself and it must slightly frustrate him that it is not the silly b-movie I think he hoped for. He get "the" line of course and a few other good moments but generally he just concentrates on being solid and the presence he effortlessly is. Below him there is very little. Margulies is hardly a star and nobody else has much to do other than represent a particular group (mothers, lovers, newly weds, jerks etc) to be fed up to the snakes one after another.
So, hype aside, this is a so-so b-movie but with a bit of fun and cheek, it could have been a good one. The title will continue to buy it a reputation beyond what it deserves for a while but apart from the fan boys, many casual viewers will be left unimpressed.