‘Snake Outta Compton’ DVD Review
Stars: Ricky Flowers Jr., Motown Maurice, Donte Essien, Aurelia Michael, Joston Theney, Jon Kondelik, Tarkan Dospil, Arielle Brachfeld, Eric Paul Erickson | Written by Tim Johnson, James Kondelik, Jon Kondelik, Ashley Scott Meyers | Directed by Hank Braxton
It’s a great day in South Central: Cam and his hip-hop crew are all set to sign a record deal that could change their lives. But their jealous friend Vurkel wrecks their plans when he creates a giant, mutant snake that quickly lays waste to the city of Compton, eating everyone in its path. Soon Cam, Pinball, Neon, and Beez Neez cook up a crazy scheme to stop the monstrous, munching menace—blow it away it by pumping up the jams.
You’ve got to love ANY film that starts with a snake falling out of a plane directly onto a car driving through Compton… Yes, Snake Outta Compton literally sees Snakes On A Plane collide [snake] head first with Straight Outta Compton in this creature feature parody that takes ridiculousness to a whole new level. As well as being jammed packed with laugh-out-loud gags and wince-inducing gore, director Hank Braxton throws in parodies of the films Speed and Training Day, a dream sequence featuring some legendary rappers, as well as some startling sequences of giant snake carnage, as the mutated beast destroys half of downtown L.A, and even takes on a helicopter!
OK, so audiences really know what they’re in for with a title like Snake Outta Compton. There’s no real need to explain that this film is a parody, but what is worth explaining is just how ridiculously stupid this movie is… In a good way of course! Packed with the same kind of laugh-out-loud humour that made Scary Movie such a hit, director Hank Braxton leaves no filmic stone unturned in pursuit of a laugh – and it pays off, with not only recent hit flicks plundered for parody but a whole slew of movies, including the House Party movies of the 90s and TV show Family Matters. However at the heart of the film there’s also something of a solid message about black stereotypes in the movies (and in real life TBH) and the importance of friendship.
Yet that doesn’t stop Snake Outta Compton from being an over-the-top ridiculous mess – Braxton and his team of writers literally throw everything at the screen and not all of it sticks, some of the jokes fall flat and the film stays around a bit longer than necessary (that “superhero” epilogue was seriously not needed). The film also struggles in particular when the characters play things for laughs rather than act normally; well, as normal as characters could be in a film like this!
If you liked Scary Movie, Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th, Not Another Teen Movie and the myriad of films that it spawned (Extreme Movie, Disaster Movie), then you’ll certainly get a kick out of Snake Outta Compton. You might not get all the references but you’ll definitely have fun watching the cast fumble through this monster movie laugh-a-thon.
Snake Outta Compton is out now on DVD from Altitude.