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Memorable, crazy movie

Just perfect...

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Let's face reality: most made-for-SyFy movies the past few years have been not only formulaic to the max, but pathetically scripted, acted, and cg'd. So to find this movie, which has some typical SyFy flick flaws but otherwise was fun, well then it's a gem among rocks. First is the intended or unintended visage of the protagonist lead character, because he looks more like an actor picked for a Western movie role than an authentic Old West character, so that starts us off on a fun note. The next best feature is Billy Drago as the antagonist -- he chews up every scene he is in and it is pure delight to watch his now-aged face and listen to his perfected southwestern drawl. And the movie builds tension remarkably well for a TV production. Of course the protagonist and antagonist end up in a cliché gunfight, but that's O.K. because by now we, the audience, WANT to see it! Without giving everything completely away here, let's just say that neither is killed but Billy Drago rides out of town but his little gang is left behind. The next sequence is, of course, the bigger event of the massive invasion into the town by zillions of deadly Copperhead snakes, and how the townspeople and remaining gang prepare for and deal with it. This is where the viewer is forced to focus on how a production and set designer can make a western town look dusty and authentic while being at the same time woefully low-budgeted so that the constructed town is perhaps too tiny overall. Now there are some real CG problems with the snakes, and some special effects problems such as where the hits are from a Gatling gun, but then there are some good (probably too few) splatter and snake-chopping effects. When Mama snake shows up, there's some real fun. What disappoints is that after the major snake encounters, Billy Drago doesn't show up to finalize his score with the lead character, which he had promised to do. In fact, the ending seems to have been a bit contrived to cover for that plot problem. But any time the good guy gets to ride off into the sunset (literally here), it's been a fun ride.

Copperhead didn't strike me as a bad or unwatchable movie. It's just that it was too uneven for me to class it as good. The western bit is actually entertaining, with authentic attention to detail, some decent lines, a good rootin' tootin' score and moments of excitement in the action. However, the "mutated creature" part is nowhere near as promising, with artificial-looking and very un-scary snakes, dialogue that goes into clichéd and hackneyed territory and a predictable and illogical story. The characters are stereotypical and not always engaging, the corrupt sheriff was the best of the lot and I have seen variations of this sort of character many times. The acting is not bad though, Billy Drago is a lot of fun. Overall, uneven but could've been worse. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Actually pretty entertaining. This movie doesn't ask you to take it seriously; all the characters have Western Movie cliché names right out of a Blazing Saddles type satire. What's odd is the attention to detail for the Western movie half of the story. You've got everything from gunslingers to saloons to spittoons to high stake poker players aiming guns at each other while they declare their hands, and so on. The sets, costumes etc. are reasonably authentic, more than one would expect from a movie like this.The other half is the mutated creature portion, which isn't put together as well, but the whole package woven together somehow works. That's not to say the story is entirely logical; plot holes abound. The origin of the snakes and why they behave as they do; the movie doesn't really explain, or even seem to care. The whole focus is on a town full of cowboys having a shoot out with the massive army of snakes, and on this silly level, it succeeds as entertainment. These battles are sent up with reckless dedication to outrageous fun: how often do you get to see somebody blasting thousands of snakes with a Gattling Gun?You know who's going to get croaked long before they do. The characters spout off comic one-liners when they should be terrified. The snake seen at the end looks about as real as a stick-man drawing. It's wacky, but a lot of brainless fun.

Copperhead actually achieved a level I've never seen before on the Sci-Fi channel: not half bad! Some of the dialog, always a rusty nail in the foot for these films, is actually GOOD, well-thought out, and delivered professionally. The direction and editing give it pace that makes it a slither above its bad brethren. Lorenzo Senatore's camera work is also excellent.It is not perfect. Holes and gaffs: The dead horse raises its head. The crack-proof safe has drywall you can stick your finger through. The exciting shot of the snakes crushing the fire is spoiled by continuity lapses. Fully loaded guns are handed so you can see that they don't have any bullets in them. I suspect Nathan Furst had to sprinkle enough Morricone nods to make the producers happy (it's distracting and the score was good enough without it). The world's slowest gatling gun that also doubles as a poker/spear chucker (all without ever being tested). An explosion (nice one!) that rips the top floor of a saloon, conveniently killing every last snake, but barely singing two main characters.The main weakness is the snakes themselves. The scene in the stable where the first scofflaw gets it would have been done better Hitchcock style: NOT showing it! In fact, if we'd seen the snakes less and more computing power was available to render them, they would have made for more creepy critters.In conclusion, if Copperhead was on again, I might give it a second viewing, not to make fun of it, but because it was fun. A Sci-Fi first!