Veneno Mortal

Just another cheaply made B-grade TV presentation from the sci-fi channel with sub-standard CGI effects… yeah but I actually came away really enjoying this feature even though in a laughable sense. My main fascination that drew me in was that Billy Drago was credited, but to my surprise he all but had 30 minutes. After the opening he disappears not completely knowing his fate. Anyhow what eventuates is some mindless and kooky snake-action on the western frontier. That's pretty much the story too. Predictable and not much meat to it, despite some of the characters having some sort of background story. Nothing is totally explored, but it's fulfilling. The action comes in spades, with plenty of bang for your buck with bullets and snakes making a great recipe. As for the snakes themselves, they look like you would expect for such a production. Glossy and overdone. Terrible wouldn't go astray either. Time flies by, while the script fits nicely and adds some digestible humour to the fold and the score (while on repeat) creates that western twang. Even the camera-work is crisp in movement and placement. Performances hold up with a solid lead turn by Brad Johnson and Drago pretty much steals the scenes in the opening encounters. Not a bad feature, which is amusingly fun and captivating throughout.

Copperhead didn't strike me as a bad or unwatchable movie. It's just that it was too uneven for me to class it as good. The western bit is actually entertaining, with authentic attention to detail, some decent lines, a good rootin' tootin' score and moments of excitement in the action. However, the "mutated creature" part is nowhere near as promising, with artificial-looking and very un-scary snakes, dialogue that goes into clichéd and hackneyed territory and a predictable and illogical story. The characters are stereotypical and not always engaging, the corrupt sheriff was the best of the lot and I have seen variations of this sort of character many times. The acting is not bad though, Billy Drago is a lot of fun. Overall, uneven but could've been worse. 4/10 Bethany Cox

In an attempt to meld together a western and a horror they have instead created a boring, childish, bit of fluff. The acting, camera work, and visuals are alright. The actors did a good job with what little they had to work with. But, nothing could fix the childish script. It amazes me that someone at a studio read this script and then gave permission to create this movie! What were they thinking? The script is slow, boring, contains way too much talk and too little action. I doubt this movie could keep the interest of even a ten year old more than a few minutes. It doesn't completely fail as a B or C western. But the addition of the snakes gives the movie a real schizophrenic character. If your looking for some thrills then click the channel and keep searching. You won't find what your looking for here.

Actually pretty entertaining. This movie doesn't ask you to take it seriously; all the characters have Western Movie cliché names right out of a Blazing Saddles type satire. What's odd is the attention to detail for the Western movie half of the story. You've got everything from gunslingers to saloons to spittoons to high stake poker players aiming guns at each other while they declare their hands, and so on. The sets, costumes etc. are reasonably authentic, more than one would expect from a movie like this.

The other half is the mutated creature portion, which isn't put together as well, but the whole package woven together somehow works. That's not to say the story is entirely logical; plot holes abound. The origin of the snakes and why they behave as they do; the movie doesn't really explain, or even seem to care. The whole focus is on a town full of cowboys having a shoot out with the massive army of snakes, and on this silly level, it succeeds as entertainment. These battles are sent up with reckless dedication to outrageous fun: how often do you get to see somebody blasting thousands of snakes with a Gattling Gun?

You know who's going to get croaked long before they do. The characters spout off comic one-liners when they should be terrified. The snake seen at the end looks about as real as a stick-man drawing. It's wacky, but a lot of brainless fun.

OK, it's no Oscar winner, but as westerns go, I have to admit it was pretty much OK. Can't wait for a sequel, you just know they left it wide open for one. One suggestion though, forget the snakes next time, make it a real western. Everyone in it did a great job, and yes there wasn't enough Billy Drago, but see what I said about being left open for a sequel. I think the director is a westerns fan, someone who knows his westerns, and is a little influenced by the spaghetti westerns of the 1960' and 70's. There was a touch of old fashioned TV western to the music also, little bit Bonanza, a little bit Rawhide, just hints. A competent western overall, the snakes were a bit too CGI, but that only added to the B movie feel. So, to the producers, a sequel please with the same cast, continuation of the story, but please, traditional western without the snakes.