‘Cocaine Bear’ Review: Is Elizabeth Banks’ 1980s Coked-Up-Bear-as-Slasher Comedy So Bad It’s Good? No, It’s So Gonzo Goofy It’s…Gonzo Goofy
variety.comOwen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic The last time a movie was marketed with a this-sounds-so-wretchedly-over-the-top-not-to-mention-insane-it-could-almost-be-fun low/high concept, the results, to put it kindly, were mixed. “Snakes on a Plane,” which sounded like a title that Don Simpson scrawled in white powder on a table at 4:00 a.m., was a movie that wore its brain-deadness on both lapels.
But 17 years ago, that title inspired mountains of online chatter, to the point that the filmmakers incorporated bits and pieces of the obsessive fan gabble into the movie, most famously the Samuel L.
Jackson line, “I have had it with these mothefuckin’ snakes on this motherfuckin‘ plane!” The result was that “Snakes on a Plane” felt like the first piece of brazen Hollywood schlock that was crowdsourced.
The audience went in thinking: It may be trash, but it’s our trash. Yes, but it was trash. As the taking-off point for a knowingly debased action thriller, “Snakes on a Plane” wasn’t a good concept, but neither was it bad in a diverting way.
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