Watch Basilisk: The Serpent King For Free

the audience applauded

That was an excellent one.

Overrated

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

BASILISK is your standard giant unkillable snake movie with one difference: two recognizable actors keep things moving along when the focus is not on the so-so CGI snake. Stealing its basic plot from KING KONG, the movie has some adventurers bringing back from ancient lands an artifact, which comes to life in front of a very large audience, and proceeds to kills a ton of people. The Army cannot seem to stop it. Jeremy London and Yancy Butler costar, and the lovely Ms. Butler gets to play a comic villain for a change. London is always easy to take, and handles the dumb dialogue with just the right amount of tongue in cheek fervor. He is given lines like "Come back here with that scepter!" Both get a fair share of screen time, which helps keep the focus away from the monster, which is absolutely dumb-looking. It's a snake with a dragon's head, if you care to know. Mildly entertaining. Shot in -- where else? -- eastern Europe. You will know immediately;y it ain't New York, L.A., Toronto or Vancouver. It's just too strange-looking to be on U.S. soil. Have a beer or three and enjoy. Especialyl enjoy Ms. Butler, who runs around in a tight little red dress and looks terrific.

As a veteran aficionado of the SciFi originals, I had my usual expectations going into "Basilisk". Laughable special effects, transparent characters and formulaic situations clumsily stumbled into by unwitting victims of the CGI beast-du-jour; all comprising a solidly entertaining and heartily enjoyable experience. While "Basilisk" dutifully fulfilled many of my preconceptions, I have to say that it was a cut well above the standard Saturday night fare.This creature flick can rightfully take its place among such greats as "Hammerhead: Shark Frenzy" (Jeffery Combs can't make a bad movie), "Frankenfish" and many of the other SciFi offerings but I have to put "Basilisk" into its own category all together. The effects are of the same caliber as its worthy cousins, but I think that what lifts this one for me is the script. It is witty without being contrived and never leaves a slow moment or the feeling of awkwardness that comes with so many screenplays that try too hard to be hip (see: Lucky Number Slevin. Actually, don't see it, it's terrible). Cleavant Derricks does an outstanding job as the weekend warrior Colonel and his bantering exchanges with Jeremy London are the stuff of high theatrical art.So all in all, this one is not to be missed. Next time SciFi decides to air it, set the TiVo and prepare to be entertained. You will not be sorry.

This is the latest monster movie tromp from the Sci-fi channel. While many other sci-fi channel movies like "Kraken" were absolutely terrible, this movie is pretty good. But if compared to "Aliens" or "King Kong", this movie would be considered terrible. The plot centers on a basilisk running loose around a city and scientists trying to stop it. Also two bad guys steal a staff that has the power to kill the basilisk but at the same time find a great treasure. Of course the bad guys want the treasure. But with the basilisk following the bad guys, things get complicated. While the characters are like card-board cut-outs and the special effects not so special, this movie exceeds in is a story that moves along fast enough to keep people entertained and excited. This movie is fairly enjoyable and only moderately disappointing. If sci-fi keeps making movies of this caliber, than i will tune in on Saturdays much more often.

I give the Basilisk props. In one confrontation, he bites the hottie with the scepter in her hand and rips her dress off. Instead of, oh I dunno, say, running for her life, she sits there in her undies and yells at the Basilisk for ruining her dress. The Basilisk stares at her for two seconds, then chomps her torso off. Not only is it a comically bad scene, but we also got to see Yancy Butler in her skivvies. Tremendous. As for the rest of the movie, it's your standard SciFi Original fare. People find relics of an ancient creature somewhere in Persia. Despite warnings from the locals to leave well enough alone, they take everything home to a major metropolitan museum and the thing comes to life. Military grunts come in talking all big and bad about how they'll blow this thing to smithereens, then run like little girls after it starts ripping them to shreds. Science geeks study its habits and try to find a way to kill it. The Basilisk looked pretty cool. The ending was a little dumb, so that pulls the overall rating lower. But if you're in the mood for some bad horror hijinks, "Basilisk: The Serpent King" (kind of a silly title, since toward the end of the movie the Basilisk was proved to be female) will fit the bill.