Snakes On A Plane opened last night and I freakin missed it!! Totally forgot! I just lost 4D6 geek cred points and have to turn in my Sam Jackson Fan Club Secret Decoder Ring (it’s the one that makes everything say “Bad Mutha…).
This movie is already a tremendous success. Before a single ticket is sold. Never in my memory has there been a more effective cult/viral marketing campaign for a film. Much like Mr. Jackson himself is rumored to have done, movie geeks around the world were sold the minute they heard the title. Once we heard that perennial fan-boy favourite and universally-accepted-coolest/baddest-actor-on-the-planet: Mr. Samuel Leroy Jackson (a.k.a.: “The Man”) was signed on to lead… it was done. And the studio did the smartest thing they could have: got the heck out of the way and let the public create it’s own hype.
Not only that, but they listened to it.
When the studio realized what kind of audience they had ensnared, and what kind of expectations there were, they even took the movie back to set and re-shot a number of scenes to “harden” the film from a PG-13 (typical Hollywood broadest-mass-appeal target) to an R (the non-pacified version most people want to see anyway). Now that’s fan service.
Good things happen when studios listen to their fans. Another company might have been stupid enough to go around suing people for all these “unofficial” uses of their propterty… the movie title, quotes, images, parodies, fake trailers, etc. And if you compare the relative impact of permitting or even encouraging active participation in the development and marketing of your film to the typically bland and unoriginal output of the insulated Hollywood PR teams… well, you tell me. Which one of these two posters do you think is more memorable? Not more professional, or more “on-target”, or any other boardroom-speak measure of effectiveness, just which one stands out:
This one:
or this one:
Admit it. Which one made you smile? If you’re any kind of movie geek, which one makes you want to buy into the hype and tell everyone about it? And which one looks like a standard cookie-cutter “summer action blockbuster” poster that could have any of a dozen different titles on it and no one would know the difference?
This is a movie for movie geeks. For the B-movie lovers. For the people that can still remember the first time they saw Death Race 2000 or tell you what they wore to Rocky Horror. Who can quote Bruce Campbell, think Quentin
talks to God (and God borrows his movies), and at one point in their lives seriously considered if they could pull off jerry curls and a handlebar mustache.
This movie is pretty much critic-proof. It has skipped half the industry and just given the fans what they wanted. I haven’t even seen the dang thing, and I already love it. I’ll see it. A few times in theaters. And I’ll own it on DVD. I’ll probably order a T-shirt too. My girlfriend will roll her eyes, some people will laugh, many people won’t get it at all. It doesn’t matter if it makes a billion dollars or bombs after one weekend.
This ain’t Shakespeare mutherf@#$rs.
It’s Sam.
And snakes.
On a plane.
We win.
~~~~~
Definitions of “Snakes on a Plane“, from Urban Dictionary:
Snakes on a Plane:
A sort of philosophy. Somnewhere in between “Cest la vie”, “Whattya gonna do?” and “Shit happens”
WIFE: “Honey you stepped in dog poop again. “
ME: “Snakes on a Plane…”
DOCTOR: “Your cholesterol is 290. Perhaps you want to mix in a walk once in a while.”
ME: “Snakes on a Plane…”
WIFE: “Honey while you were on your cholesterol walk you stepped in dog poop again.”
ME: “Snakes on a Plane…”
Snakes on a Plane:
In a heated arguement, if one cannot sufficiently defend themself, stating “snakes on a plane” automatically wins the arguement no matter what the circumstances.
Dude 1: “Robocop 2 is way better than Robocop 3″
Dude 2: “But Robocop 3 had robot ninjas and jetpacks”
Dude 1:”You know what, snakes on a plane…..snakes on a mutha fuckin plane”
Snakes on a Plane:
Quite possibly the best movie of all time.
George Bush: Did you hear Snakes on a Plane won 10 oscars?
Samuel L. Jackson: Yes I mother-fucking did!
Snakes on a Plane:
The punchline to any joke, similiar to Lewis Black stating that “Michael Jackson” is the punchline to any joke.
“Two Jews walk into a Bar…Snakes on a Plane”
Snakes on a Plane:
Too much soap on one’s genitals, (i.e., while showering.)
“Ow! Snakes on a plane!”
Snakes on a Plane:
1. An idea so amazingly, naturally perfect that no amount of deep thought by experienced professionals can possibly improve on it.
2. Something very bad.
“Snakes on a plane”?
Snakes on a mutha-farkin plane!
