"I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane"

This is just one of many pictures from the California adventure, this one taken at the famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre. This is the place where most big Hollywood movies premiere and Snakes On A Plane was playing while we were there, which I deemed pretty neat. Anyway, the California pictures are coming, but it's going to take me a good long while. Your patience is appreciated. And now, the real post ...

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Last week, I had the pleasure of taking in Samuel L. Jackson's latest cinematic gem, Snakes On A Plane, in the company of some good friends at a delightfully empty theatre that allowed the ever-delightful Phil Froklage and I to vocally commend the filmmakers for their revolutionary vision at every turn. My expectations were high and I can say without word of a lie that they were met in full by what I dare say qualifies as the definitive movie of our time.

All fecetiousness aside, this has been a movie I've been excited to see for a while, particularly after seeing Sam Jackson on The Daily Show, where he confirmed the rumours I'd heard about the ridiculous backstory to the making of this film. Some highlights:

- Jackson did not read a word of the script before signing on for the project
- When they tried to change the title of the film, which was originally intended as only a working title, Jackson threatened to quit
- This movie became such an Internet-cult phenomenon while it was still in production that, upon reading some people's postings on blogs, the filmmakers went back and re-shot certain scenes to include dialogue such as this entry's title.

And that, I guess is where I want to go with this post. As much as I thoroughly enjoyed this film experience - and I key in on the word experience here, since all I wanted was to be laughing at the movie and not with it - I'd be utterly horrified if this type of thing became commonplace. I actually wrote an editorial for the racially-ambiguous Joe Turcotte (anyone who can provide insights to this man's past or present identity, please call me on the ASAP) in The Cord Weekly just last week, lamenting the lack of intelligent cinema. And yes, Snakes was precisely the type of film I was railing against - but with one key difference. This film knew it was a joke. It was okay with that. It embraced that.

So, I guess what intrigues, and in some ways, terrifies me most about the fact that random Internet bloggers effected the final product of a well-known film is the interactivity of the medium this could come to represent. Snakes On A Plane, I think, could be a trendsetter. I'm betting there are other instances of fan input on films to which I'm ignorant, but does anyone know of anything this random? Should we expect this to become commonplace? Should we even be concerned if it does, given that the vast majority of good cinema being made will always be working independent of the Hollywood mainstream and, as such, will be untarnished by this type of pandering to a lowest common denominator of sorts? What does everyone think? I have a lot of friends that know a lot more about the film industry than I do and I'm legitimately curious to know what you have to say.

PS - I hereby nominate the moment, about an hour and a half into the movie, when something goes wrong and one of the passengers exclaims as though it were a revelation, "It's the snakes!", as one of the single funniest moments in film history.