Director – Hank Braxtan (Return of the Ghostbusters, Unnatural)
Starring – Ricky Flowers Jr. (South Arcadia St., Show Me Your Glory: The Movie), Motown Maurice (Oishi: Demon Hunter, Alien Expedition), and Donte Essien (Stepping High, The Fosters)
Release Date – 2018
Rating – 2.5/5
I love stupid movies. God damn do I love stupid movies. It seems like the dumber the movies are the more fun I have. People often confuse fun movies and good movies. Fun movies are just that. They don’t have to be good but they do entertain. Good movies are good. They have great cinematography, amazing cast, a solid script, and an unforgettable story. Both of these can be entertaining but I prefer the no budget fun movies over a good movie any day.
Some time ago I received a press release for the Straight Outta Compton spoof Snake Outta Compton. It made waves across social media and many horror fans were either amped up about it or instantly bashed it. I was excited. I couldn’t wait to check it out and when I got the review solicit I had to reply. Sadly, the film was not as entertaining as the title.
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows a nerd, Vurkel (Essien), who finds a snake embryo from a snake that had fell off a plane. He takes it to his lab (his bedroom) where he uses a special laser to mutate it but this fails when his laser loses power because his roommate is having a house party and the sound system overloaded it. What he doesn’t know is that his failed experiment has now mutated his snake and its is growing in size by the second until it reaches gigantic proportions. He must find it before it gets out of hand but he fails to capture it and now Compton is in danger if he cant catch it along with his roommate and his roommates rap group. **Spoiler Alert**
I went into this one expecting a few laughs here and there and some cheesy SyFy quality creature fun but what I got was a movie that will be easily forgotten with some of the worst humor I’ve witnessed on film.
The acting in this one is actually damn good. I really enjoyed the cast and the characters they brought to life. The film may be forgettable but these characters are not. The cast does an amazing job and no one overshadows the other. It is very consistent acting and well written characters that make the movie somewhat enjoyable.
The story for this one has so much potential but once you hit the halfway point in the film it feels as if it was rushed. We do not have a consistent story arch. Instead we have the main focus of the film, giant snake and the rap group, with filler scenes meant to parody training day tossed in. These two stories do intersect but it breaks the flow of the film up drastically. The humor starts out strong but quickly fads to more story driven which it fails to capture.
Finally, if you want blood and gore you won’t find it here. There is some blood but its mostly horrible CGI. We do get a great looking snake makeup effects but that is hidden in the sea of horrible visuals. Overall, Snake Outta Compton was meant to be cheap laughs but focuses more on the cheap. It does deserve a late night watch with some alcohol but don’t expect much more than that.
