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List Price: $12.95 | | Label: Rhi Entertainment
Salesrank: 38601
Released: September 23, 2008 |
| Our Price: $4.00 |
| Used Price: $1.73 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A group of genetically enhanced vipers are on the loose after a break-in at a medical research laboratory. They don't just bite. They eat. Reproducing at a rapid rate, they now outnumber the locals of a nearby remote island who have barricaded themselves in an increasingly vulnerable hotel. With help on its way - or not-- the lone survivors have one chance to stay alive: make it to the shore--and fast.
Vipers Reviews:
actually pretty good 
2009-08-24 - This was actually one of the better snake movies out there. full of blood and gore, hell yeah. It is definately worth watching if you are into horror or creature films. There is alot of bad ones out there, this isnt one of them.
After the Slither Comes the Slaughter... 
2009-06-19 - Vipers: DVD Review
Grade: C+
Vipers was one of those Sci-Fi channel original movies that premiere on Sci-Fi Saturday; it's basically were they put their best movies. I love Sci-Fi's Saturday movies--some of my favorite Sci-Fi channel movies have come from there, like Sea Beast and Wyvern--and they almost always have some pretty awesome plots.
Vipers is no exception--the plot may not be original, seeing that it is close to Guy N. Smith's Snakes--but I love plots like these. A group of genetically altered vipers--and by genetically altered, I mean made about 100 times more vicious than normal, and they now have an appetite for human flesh--are accidently set loose on a town called Eden. Since the town is on an island, the snakes have nowhere to go, and start feasting on the locals.
The locals, including an extremely annoying Tara Reid playing an even more annoying character who is growing pot in her garden, join up with each other to try and stop the snakes, along with save their own lives. Then--of course--the government comes in, and wants to wipe out the whole town, getting rid of the menacing snakes before they can reach the mainland.
Yeah, it sounds cool, but Vipers just has too many problems to keep it from being cool. First of all: the characters. They are all stereotypes, and are all annoying. (You just want them to die at the hands of the snakes...) I think the only person that convincingly played their role without being annoying was the lady scientist who helps the townsfolk. Second, the snakes look terrible. They are all CGI, but they look worse than a typical video game's graphics. Third, the plot, as great as it is, is way too predictable. Couldn't they have thrown in something more original once in awhile?
Fourth is the most important one: they need to get their facts straight. The vipers don't act like vipers, and every action they make is something that vipers don't do. (The vipers start eating people--I don't think vipers literally take bites out of people....) And when a boy is bitten by one of the vipers--before the town even knows about them--they immediately have the right anti-venom at hand. The doctor didn't even know what kind of snake bit the boy--the mother just said "he got bite by a snake!" Don't you have to know what specific type of snake before you administer the anti-venom? Because if you don't, and you have the wrong anti-venom, aren't you just putting a new venom into the body?
So in the end, if you don't mind wrong facts, bad CGI, a good but predictable plot, and annoying characters, than you'll enjoy Vipers. It had some fun moments, which sort of redeemed the movie, but I couldn't give it anything higher than a C+. Still, it's a way to pass a Saturday afternoon...
Slow 
2009-01-12 - The animation of the snakes was terrible, but if you're into SF then watch the movie, but it's not a movie you'll want to watch again.
It was a different experience
2008-12-28 - I'm not really sure what to make of this movie. It's always at the very least, something of a relief when a sci-fi channel original turns out to be something other than an uninspired, formulaic monster movie. This was definitely different.
The main drawback is ironically derived from a positive. It's not often the Sci-Fi Channel makes a movie with a likable cast, and in this case likable characters were getting killed off left and right while a bunch of extras were milling around unscathed for most of the movie.
On the other hands it good that the movie had likable characters at all.
On another note, this movie festures masses of snaks, not the usual insect swarm or giant animal. And in something of an oddity for the Sci-Fi channel, there's no giant snakes in this movie.
On second thought, 3/5. In my original review I rated it 4/5, but I'm not sure it was quite that good.
Cheap Thrills and Bad CGI
2008-11-12 - The Sci-Fi Channel produces as many films as there are weeks in a year. Are any of them good? Not really. But that notion has probably created a stigma on the channel, so when one comes along that is decent; people just flat out dismiss it. I mean, you do know what you are going to get when one says "it's a Sci-Fi Channel" movie. As in the case with Vipers, who cares? I'm glad I knew what I was going to get. I watched it with only one frame of mind: snake carnage.
To my surprise, I got actual good acting and a decent story, with characters I was rooting for not-not-to die. And yes, I got my snake carnage.
As with these types of films, we start with a researcher with a good plan on using the snake venom to cure cancer or something but these scientifically-enhanced snakes break loose onto a hapless, calm, quite island called Eden Island. These snakes don't just bite, they eat and devour! Blood, gore, all of that good stuff is here and on any late night beer and pizza run, this would be ideal. Luckily, director Bill Corcoran gives us something a bit more, despite some fun B-movie moments.
Tara Reid stars as Nicky, a fiancée of a dead soldier from the Iraq War. She's angry, bitter, and flirty, all of that good stuff Reid is known for, but somehow she's quite good here. Cal (Jonathan Scarfe) is sent to Eden Island to replace a retiring doctor. He's soon forced into numerous quarrels of ex-lovers and other island drama, all the while falling for Nicky and saving people from killer snakes. Scarfe is really good, perhaps too good for a TV movie-of-the-week, but as such, gives the film a foundation to establishing characters we will care about. Some of the drama gets a tad soap-y, but hey, I dug it all. That's the oddest thing too, it's written better than it should've been, I keep saying this, but for a Sci-Fi movie, it needed to be whatever, just have science stuff and killer CG animals, but it had more.
Even if the snakes were minimal and little blood, I would've still enjoyed the flick. Now the snakes are cheap looking, low CGI effects, and the typical crap they use in these Sci-Fi films. I wish they would use this sparingly or mix it with practical effects. Granted something like Anaconda has better effects, but they also have 10 times the budget Vipers did. I'm actually surprised at the level of gore and tits in this film, being it were made for TV. Oh well, with my beer and pizza at midnight, I get snakes, gore, tits, and a decent snake movie that I enjoyed more than any of the last handful, I say bring it!
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