Black Snake Slithers Up and Slithers Down

Rating: 6/10 (1 July 2007)

BLACK SNAKE MOAN offers a real mixed bag of ingredients from excellent to false and annoying. On the plus side, both Christina Ricchi and Samuel L. Jackson deliver their best performances ever. We also get a look at the overly-popular Justin Timberlake seeing him doing something other than misbehaving at the Super Bowl Show. This is a very Christian movie, certainly more religious than the pseudo-religion in EVAN ALMIGHTY. The photography, continuity, blues music are all excellent; and all the characters are real, not Spidermen or Silver Surfers (or rats).
On the downside, the director-writer wants to annoy his audience with scenes he must have known are offensive. I know it's offensive to women because I heard that firsthand watching the DVD. Racially, we've turned the corner now that we have White stereotypes, not just Black. Offense and annoyance might be why the picture failed severely at the box office. Finally, the I-was-raped-by-my-dad card has been played way too often for any dramatic impact.
One last comment, petite, slender, excessively cute girls with spitfire personalities are almost guaranteed to have literally dozens of men who don't just lust after them, but intensely love them. If Christina Ricchi looked and acted in real life as she does in this movie, she'd have A-quality men lined up around the block begging for attention. Born loser? NOT!