and here with some commentary is a grumpy old man

[rone]

You know, there was this dumb gorefest film in a claustrophic setting that counted Samuel L. Jackson among its stars and scary animals as the nemesis.  It was called "Deep Blue Sea".  It sucked and it did poorly.  Now we have "Pacific Air 121", with all the same core qualities, except this time it's been hyped to death, given a stupid yet catchy title, and somehow you people think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.  It isn't.  It's still a stupid movie.  The whole "so dumb it's fun" thing has been done to death by pro wrestling, Norm McDonald, and the Bush Administration.  So if that's what you like, sure, go watch the movie.  But let's not pretend that somehow this dumb movie is better than other dumb movies.  I didn't see you people lining up to go watch "Dungeons & Dragons", after all.

Comments

[nothings.livejournal.com]

You just have to have the right value of "you people" (http://users.livejournal.com/sunyata__/1163547.html)! I really wanted to post a snarky reply about how many other shitty movies she could have done this with, but what's the point. The only shitty movie to do this at is the one everyone else has agreed to do it with. Having _everybody_ pick the _same_ shitty movie is moronic because it'll give the movie studios the wrong idea, but oh well.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Eh, the studios will make their own wrong ideas anyway. But, yes, seeing people wetting themselves with glee at the badness of SoaP but not, say, a Pauly Shore movie makes no sense to me. Maybe what we need is to have this become some USC film student's thesis: why are some bad movies "entertaining" to a non-trivial amount of people?

[schwa242.livejournal.com]

Bingo.

I think the people that brought silly string to the sneak premiere last night helped add to that. As did the giggly teenagers who started hissing whenever snakes appeared on the screen.

It's crap. But it's fun to go into a movie expecting MST3K levels of dumb, rather than worrying about whether you're going to piss other moviegoers off because they don't realize it's a dumb movie, or hope beyond hope that it isn't. When everyone goes in to a film expecting it to be shit, there's a certain shared level of fun that can be had by all. I wasn't really there for the movie, but the experience of the movie.

Oh yeah.... can I sound pretentious about justifying being a prick who spends fifteen bucks on something that doesn't deserve my hard-earned cash just because I've still got that lame I-enjoy-bad-things-because-I'm-so-much-better-than-the-people-would-really-enjoy-it mentality that was tired ten years ago, or what? Somebody fetch me a trucker cap, a Spaghetti-O stained t-shirt with a decal of the Downy bear on it, and a case of Hamm's... and quick!

-- Schwa ---

That reminds me, I still need to see Dungeons and Dragons.

[palecur.livejournal.com]

The badness can be summed up in a quote from a review: "You know something is terribly wrong when a Wayans Brother gets killed and you find yourself missing him."

[arian1.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I want to go bleach my brain now.

[also-huey.livejournal.com]

Somebody fetch me a trucker cap, a Spaghetti-O stained t-shirt with a decal of the Downy bear on it, and a case of Hamm's... and quick!

You and I clearly gots some beer-drinkin' and settin-things-on-fire to do.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Indeed -- my initial comment on walking out of the theater was "this is the STUPIDEST thing I have ever seen that wasn't made in Hong Kong." And I say this as someone with a deep and abiding love for intensely stupid HK flicks.

DBS was entertaining enough, in a big dumb action flick movie sort of way. But it didn't seem to realize it was nothing but a big dumb action movie, while SOAP positively revels in its campy over-the-top dumbness.

(And it had the best gratuitous yap-dog scene I've seen since "Blade 3", which was also pretty damn stupid.)

[tskirvin.livejournal.com]

I lined up to see _D&D_. It sucked worse than _SoaP_. And the _SoaP_ audience was having a lot more fun.

That said, now that it's over, I'd like for the hype to disappear now, thankyouverymuch.

[anavolena.livejournal.com]

i hate you, milkman rone.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

What's even scarier is they made a sequel...

...and it managed to suck less than the first one.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

I had fun in the movie. The audience was going nuts and everyone was entertaining and entertained. I feel sorry for folks like you, man, because you can't have fun with people.

The guy behind me drank 2 bottles of merlot, too. Even wine aficionados like Snakes on a Plane. If you weren't such a curmudgeon you could have chatted with him during the movie about merlot and stuff.

Disclaimer: I am also a curmudgeon.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

Although honestly, maybe your point is that people craving this sort of entertainment shouldn't wait for the Hollywood hype machine to give them an opportunity.

But that's why we have San Francisco. You should come up here one of these years.

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

Didn't you see "Sideways"?

NO FUCKING MERLOT!!!

*AHEM*

[skipernicus.livejournal.com]

Samuel "bad muthafucka" Jackson: I am so sick of these MUTHAFUCKIN SNAKES on this MUTHAFUCKIN PLANE!

That's entertainment!

[dr-strych9.livejournal.com]

Oh, come on— you have to admit it was fun to watch Jeremy Irons bounce around in there. It didn't make up for crap acting of the protagonists and the nine million other things that went horribly wrong, but Jeremy Irons was clearly going on more than mere stoicism.

[jwgh]

Dungeons & Dragons is in my Netflix queue somewhere. One of these months ...

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

Now I wish I was 16 again!

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmmmno.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I can have plenty of fun with people. I had fun with people tonight at the Giants game. I just can't revel in making a social event out of something dumb.

Well...

[skipernicus.livejournal.com]

He didn't say call anyone a "muthatfucka" in his Star Wars appearance, and you saw how bad that came out...

Actually, I'm lead to beleive that this film ahs turned into some kind of Rocky Horror-esque audience participation thing, and *there* is the fun of it. Since I don't see movies in theaters anymore (I'm just too cheap), I don't really give it much thought.

[khrister.livejournal.com]

And yet you watch American football? ;-)

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

I feel, sir, that you have run roughshod over my nuanced deployment of hipster irony.

May I beg satisfaction?

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

It has to be said that memories of Deep Blue Sea are the main reason that I probably won't see SoaP. Man, that movie sucked ass. And, to make matters worse, they let LL Cool J live.

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

May I beg satisfaction?

What, you want to run roughshod over my post-post modernist ironical lack of irony?

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more along the lines of driving over you with a truck.