Paul Andolina from Wrestling with Film asked me if he could review this for BASTARD PUPS OF JAWS week. I figured, sure, Anacadona is basically Jaws in the jungle with J. Lo looking good in safari clothes. Why not?

I thought that Snake Outta Compton would be appropriate for Bastard Pups of Jaws week. Boy, was I wrong. I thought this would be just another typical animal attack movie but this movie was so far off the rails from anything I’ve seen before.

A rap crew, consisting of Cam, Pinball, Neon, and Beez Neez are forced to battle a giant snake terrorizing their city. Pinball’s roommate, Vurkel, discovers a snake embryo in the streets from the detritus of a snake that fell from the sky out of an airplane.

Vurkel then bombards the snake that hatches from it with a ray that imbues it with a slew of unstable molecules. This makes the snake grow rapidly and it escapes, eating its way through the city.

This movie plays with its hand revealed, it’s a silly film, full of references to other movies. It even spoofs the film Training Day. It follows two cops who are not only crooked but also incompetent. The veteran cop is even named Denz (Joston Theney, himself an accomplished writer and director) and the rookie, Ethan. They say that it is training day for the rookie cop more times then I could keep track of.

I expected this to be a standard cash grab riff on Snakes on a Plane with a giant monster spin but it turned out to be anything but. It lampoons rap culture as much as it glorifies it, and is generally an exaggeration of urban life as a whole. The characters are all as ridiculous as they are entertaining and there is never a dull moment in the film. There’s plenty of cool stuff to look at throughout the film and I found the CGI of the giant snake to be quite effective. I thought the CGI would be more akin to that of a B level TV movie but it was crisp and attractive.

I found the movie to be fun and entertaining, the music, excellent, and the story captivating. It turns out that if you get eaten by the snake and come into contact with its saliva, you begin to transform into a human-snake hybrid! This was a surprising turn in the movie, and Vurkel’s slow transformation into a hybrid, I’ve affectionately decided to call Slurkel, was a highlight of the film for me.

If you are a fan of outlandish premises, irreverent comedy, giant snakes, and some sweet hip hop vibes this is the film for you. The effects are great with plenty of slimy bright colored saliva and blood. The snake kills early in the film are funny and disturbing at the same time.

Snake Outta Compton is also full of super aware commentary on the human condition too, something I found to be funny. I had been anticipating this film since seeing a poster for it and it exceeded any expectations I could have had for it. If you can turn your mind off and just enjoy a film for what it gives you, something folks seem to have a difficult time doing in our highly critical comic book laden movie theater age, you should give Snake Outta Compton a shot.

Even if you can’t just watch a film with an open mind you should see it because I think it was a bunch of silly fun. Sso take a sseat, grab a ssoda and savor the hip hop flavor of sSnake Outta Compton, hiss a fun one!