Stargate SG-1 - Review of Michael Shanks' "Mega Snake"

[morjana]

From Monsters and Critics:

http://smallscreen.monstersandcritic..._night_chiller

(Please follow the link for the complete review.)

Smallscreen Reviews

Review: Sci Fi's 'Mega Snake' a slithery Saturday night chiller

"Mega Snake" premieres Saturday, August 25 @ 9 PM ET/PT, on Sci Fi.

By April MacIntyre Aug 22, 2007, 19:54 GMT

The Sci Fi Channel has brought the chill and the thrill back to Saturday night, family friendly scary fare that harkens the days of Saturday night Chiller Theater or Tales from the Crypt (a PG-13 version).

“Mega Snake” is Sci Fi’s Saturday night original movie featuring a special appearance by “Feedback” (a.k.a. Matthew Atherton), last year’s winner on the hit Sci Fi original series “Who Wants to be a Superhero?” and stars Michael Shanks, of Stargate SG-1 fame.

Producer Boaz Davidson conjured up an interesting southern gothic yarn of two brothers and their parents, Pentecostal snake handlers in the Tennessee hills, and a crisis of faith moment during a snake handling service that renders the stricken father left to die in front of his family.

Cut to twenty years later, and the brothers are still at loggerheads.

**snippage**

Notable is the exceptional camera work of cinematographer Emil Topuzov and director Tibor Takács, and the beautiful Bulgarian countryside that the location manager scouted that does a good job mimicking the verdant American southeast.

Popcorn fun for the family, it will be too much scary slithery action for smaller kids, and people truly afraid of snakes should just wait for "Flash Gordon" or "Stargate: Atlantis."

[morjana]

Another review for "Mega Snake":

From TVaholic:

http://www.tvaholic.com/2007/08/23/t...riginal-movie/

(Please follow the link for the complete review.)

August 23, 2007

TV Movie Review: Mega Snake - Sci Fi Saturday Original Movie

by Jason the TVaholic @ 6:53 pm.

Premiere Date: Saturday, August 25th, 2007

Rating: 1 out of 4 Stars

Quick Synopsis: Don’t let it out, don’t let it feed on anything living, but if you do, don’t fear the heart of the snake.

Long Synopsis: A boy loses his father to a deadly snakebite and grows up to fear snakes and, well, a whole lot of other things as well. Now, in present day, his moronic brother has stolen a dangerous snake from a Native American snake dealer. When he doesn’t heed the rules, the snake gets out, it feeds on live people and everyone is afraid of it, it starts to grow and grow and threatens the whole town. It is up to our young frightened boy, now a reluctant man to save the day when the giant snake starts to wreak havoc at the annual county fair. He will have to face his fear, to rescue the town and the woman he loves.

Review: Mega Snake is one of those cheesy Sci Fi Saturday Original Movies. It stars Michael Shanks (Stargate SG-1) as the hero of the story and features just about every cliché this type of movie can muster.

From dueling backwoods dwellers, to the stupidly cocky sheriff, the good girl ex-girlfriend, the hero that can’t get his life together, the town floozy, the mayor that won’t hear of canceling the fair, the snake bait deputies, and too many more to mention are all there for your viewing pleasure.

As well, the dialogue is lackluster and pedestrian. Even the heroes sound like idiots. The actors did what they could with the material given, but as the title implies, the movie is really about watching a giant and fast growing snake devour the town’s populace.


**snippage**

[morjana]

SG1 - Michael Shanks' "Mega Snake" - A mini review:

From the Colorado Springs Gazette (Colorado Springs, CO):

http://www.gazette.com/entertainment...ason_high.html

(Please follow the link for the complete column.)

**snippage**

HERO TAKES ON MEGA SNAKE

A few weeks ago, I updated readers on Palmer High grad and “Who Wants to be a Superhero?” Season 1 winner Matthew Atherton. One of Atherton’s prizes for winning the Sci Fi reality show was an appearance in a Sci Fi movie.

And if you’ve ever watched Sci Fi on a Saturday night, you know that the channel specializes in B-movie creature features straight out of a 1950s matinee.

So, look for Atherton at 7 p.m. Saturday in “Mega Snake.”

Having seen a screener of “Mega Snake,” I can promise you that it achieves stratospheric heights of B-movie awesomeness, although Atherton’s role is, sadly, quite small.

I won’t spoil the plot, other than to say that if you took an episode of “The Dukes of Hazzard” in which Bo and Luke had to fight a giant snake, and then filmed that episode in Bulgaria so all of the hillbilly extras had badly dubbed Southern accents, and then tacked on a random superhero-realityshow winner, you still wouldn’t have a movie half as cheesy/awful/awesome as “Mega Snake.”

**snippage**

[morjana]

SG1 - TV Jots: Reviews "Mega Snake":

From the TV Jots blog:

http://tvjots.blogspot.com/2007/08/m...ck-hisses.html

(Please follow the link for the complete review.)

Friday, August 24, 2007

MegaSnake: Sci Fi's Latest Flick Hisses Along

But Can a Stargate SG-1 Alum and a Superhero Winner Save the Day?

When Feedback, also known as Matthew Atherton, won the first season of comic-book master Stan Lee's Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, a major component of his prize package was a role in a Sci Fi Original Movie. Well, that flick, MegaSnake, finally drops tomorrow night as a part of Sci Fi's popular cheese-tastic Most Dangerous Night of Television lineup. Taking a distant backseat to star Michael Shanks, himself a much-loved Stargate SG-1 vet, Feedback appears in his full superhero persona, including costume, during a pivotal carnival scene. Will the big supernatural snake make a snack of him? I could tell you, but I won't. All I'll say is Feedback has that superhero thing down pat.

The main plot of the movie revolves around Les (Shanks), a paramedic in a small East Tennessee town who witnesses the gruesome—and I might add unnecessary—death of a relative when he's a young boy, leading to his subsequent fear of snakes. Twenty years later, in 2006, his pigheaded brother Duff (John T. Woods) stupidly decides to steal what initially looks like a harmless and tiny snake from a local tattoo parlor. That would just be bygones if Duff weren't clumsy, too. Unfortunately, he takes his loot home, where he still lives with Les and his widowed mother, and promptly knocks the glass container off the table, shattering it and unleashing the confined reptile. As they say, all quickly goes to hell in a handbasket from there because the little critter that we first see is really a carnivorous supernatural snake that gets bigger the more it feeds. And this sucker eats a lot.

**snippage**

The Verdict: B-

[the fifth man]

I might check out a few minutes of it. Just for kicks.

[EmmaPeel]

I might check out a few minutes of it. Just for kicks.

IMO, unless one is a big Michael Shanks fan, there was nothing redeemable about this move. Cheesy beyond description. Michael, at times, just looked like he was only doing this to get a work Visa (which he was), and all of the southern accents, including that of Shanks were pathethic. His accent as an Irish guy on the Life Time movie was much better.

I don't know why Sci-Fi makes these kinds of silly movies? Are they that profitable for the network?

[prion]

IMO, unless one is a big Michael Shanks fan, there was nothing redeemable about this move. Cheesy beyond description. Michael, at times, just looked like he was only doing this to get a work Visa (which he was), and all of the southern accents, including that of Shanks were pathethic. His accent as an Irish guy on the Life Time movie was much better.

I don't know why Sci-Fi makes these kinds of silly movies? Are they that profitable for the network?

Yup, believe so. They're cheap to make and they like Bulgaria... the movie was funny in many parts, although I don't think they intended that....

[morjana]

I don't know why Sci-Fi makes these kinds of silly movies? Are they that profitable for the network?

Surprisingly, they earn sigificantly high ratings for the SciFi Channel. And you have to consider that's what high for the SciFi Channel, is practically anthing over a 1.0...

For example:

Sands of Oblivion-----------1.4
Supergator-----------------1.7
Lake Placid 2---------------2.2

(And even a week later, a rerun of Lake Placid 2 earned a 1.2)

I'm not a fan of horror flicks, or these animals eating people flicks, but obviously there is a market out there for them.

Just the other day, I was quite surprised when my doctor told me he watches the SciFi Channel Saturday night flicks with great glee.

I'm not quite sure if I should change doctors or not.

Morjana

[Pitry]

Change doctors. Hoenstly. Do you reaklly trust such a man?!

[Pharaoh Hamenthotep]

How does this compare to David Hewlett's "Boa vs. Python"? A giant snake is terrorising Philadelphia and the only way to stop it is to release another one!

[prion]

How does this compare to David Hewlett's "Boa vs. Python"? A giant snake is terrorising Philadelphia and the only way to stop it is to release another one!

Make sense to me especially if the US gov't is involved. Sounds like an ARmy Corps of Engineer idea....

Anyway....

http://realitytvcalendar.com/shows/s...6-9313-p1.html

excerpt from article on MEGA SNAKE (8/31/07)

I watched parts of Mega Snake, and this SciFi Channel original movie is right in the category I'll call Abhorror. My own wording, but that really should be a film category, folks. I abhor gore and particularly the horror formula in which all stupid people must die. Michael Shanks from Stargate SG-1 must've been pulled into this project because execs doubted the unknown, Matt Atherton, (Feedback) would pull a big enough audience. And his catchphrase, "Time for some Feedback," is nearly all he gets to say besides some simpering State fair-audience warm-up about learning to be safe around electricity.


*READ REST OF ARTICLE AT LINK ABOVE*

[morjana]

SG1 - SciFi Wire: "Mega Snake" ratings on SciFi Channel:


From SciFi Wire:

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php

Top TEN SciFi Channel Shows

ECW-----------------------1.7
Eureka--------------------1.7
In the Spider's Web-------1.0
Mega Snake----------------1.0 - Michael Shanks' movie
Ghost Hunters-------------0.9
Sasquatch-----------------0.9
Ice Spiders---------------0.9
Flash Gordon--------------0.8
Marabunta-----------------0.8
Earth vs. Spider----------0.8


Source: Nielsen Galaxy Report, 8/20/07 -- 8/26/07

<><><><><>

Interesting. ECW made the #1 top spot again, Eureka is still doing very well...and "Flash Gordon" shows up after completely disappearing from last week's ratings. Dr. Who and Painkiller Jane are still MIA.

Morjana

[Pitry]

Interesting. ECW made the #1 top spot again, Eureka is still doing very well...and "Flash Gordon" shows up after completely disappearing from last week's ratings. Dr. Who and Painkiller Jane are still MIA.

Morjana

Quite interesting, as I've read somewhere it's actually doing worse than Doctor Who - guess not....
Tho the buttom of the list is 0.8 and still no Who or PKJ.... ouch.