Vipers

The acting isn't terrible given this ridiculous script. I don't know how you mutate a venomous snakes venom but apparently I'm doing so five snakes miraculously turn into hundreds of fully grown vipers. And apparently these snakes eat people in bites like a canine or lion or bear.

This movie would have been better had they not tried to amp up the situation by turning to the ridiculous. The Pacific Northwest is not known to be a haven for snakes since it is quite cold there.

Finally, the budget on SFX was abysmally wasted. The digital snakes sometimes move like a snake would but more often than not the snakes are just too damned fast and (especially ridiculous) move in a linear manner like a child's toy being pulled on a string. Oh yes, did you know that dying snakes cry out like an injured dog? Neither did I.

There are points where you can see how it might have been better, but more often than not it's just laughably bad.

This was my sixth title I have viewed from the Maneater series. I wasn't expecting much at all except a way to waste a Sunday morning. However I was shocked. I was expecting them to use National Geographic footage of vipers lunging at people, but instead found a cool movie that I really enjoyed.

Now some people just can't appreciate b-movies simply because they seem to actually care for the mainstream stuff and don't even want to give such stuff as Vipers a chance. If you want something award worthy your in the wrong place.

However this is a fun little movie, I was into the characters and I'll say it's the best title I've seen from the Maneater series overall.

A set of vipers has been taken by the scientists, and they have mutated them to make a cure for cancer... then their experiment goes awry, and all these vipers escape into the woods, and they are not only biting people, they are actually killing people, in a little town.

I had low expectations because of Tara Reid, but frankly she was no worse than anyone else in the movie and may actually have even been good by comparison. I hate to almost say a good word about Reid, but there it is, the closest I may ever come.

The problem with this film is easy to point out: the special effects. Snakes that take over an island and eat people (apparently including their clothes, bones and tents)? Sounds pretty good, like a classic 1950s sci-fi movie. Well, not this time. The snakes look so poor, they just ruin every scene they are in (which is most of the movie). SyFy has made a lot of poor special effects decisions, but this may be their worst.

The tagline says 'First Comes The Slither, Then Comes The Slaughter', but it could easily be changed to 'Then Comes The Yawner. Because that is what this film exactly did. It bore me to death.

Yeah, people could argue that B-movies aren't suppose to stimulate you, and the only reason directors direct these kind of films is to kill your time on a Sunday morning is just wrong. I mean, there are other B-films that is as good as the mainstream films, except that these films are produced on a smaller budget and not as widely promoted.

But I digress.

I spent an hour or so watching this film, hoping that it will get better. Sadly, it did not. I was disappointed at the plot dynamics (or the lack of it), the annoying snakes, and the unreal storyline.

I am hoping that others will watch other films instead, or if you have watch the other films, maybe cleaning your backyard and/or planting new trees on your garden is not such a bad idea.

Right, well with a movie named "Vipers", you know exactly what you are getting yourself into. And whether or not having Tara Reid on the cast list is a positive or negative thing, well that is a thing that is up to individual determination.

I decided to watch "Vipers" because I like creature features and also because it is part of the "Maneater" movie series. However, I can't claim to have much of an interest in the acting ability of Tara Reid, for better or worse.

I must admit that "Vipers" actually was a fairly adequate movie taking into consideration that there are so many, many other movies with snake themes that are far more horrible and less entertaining than the 2008 "Vipers" turned out to be.

Sure, this movie was campy and cheesy, but that is part of the genre and also a part of what makes the movie enjoyable and fun to watch.

Now, the movie has Tara Reid on the cast list, and that might be some aversion to some viewers, but it should be said that she actually fared quite well in "Vipers", taking into consideration the concept of the movie and the limitations of the script and storyline from writer Brian Katkin and director Bill Corcoran.

The special effects in the movie were for the most part actually quite good, and the snakes - again for the most part - looked realistic enough and passed as being believable. However, the fact that the snakes could growl and scream was just hilarious and it made the movie all the more cheesy and laughable.

All in all, "Vipers" delivers what you would expect from it, but actually managed to stay afloat and not become as horrible as many other snake movies did. Was it a masterpiece? Hardly so. Nor is it the type of movie that you will watch more than once.