Boa vs. Python (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	91:00
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	David Flores
Studio Distributor	Columbia Tristar F/D Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Jaime Bergman Angel Boris David Hewlett Adam Kendrick Jeff Rank Hristo Shopov Atanas Srebrev Jonas Talkington Kirk B.R. Woller
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Italian Spanish Dutch Arabic Bulgarian Croatian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Slovenian Swedish Turkish English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

   Before there was Snakes on a Plane, there was Boa vs. Python. Clearly created with TV in mind - incorporating very mediocre special effects and pauses for ad breaks - this movie for the Sci Fi Channel is definitely not Schindler’s List, but that was never the intent. Like Snakes on a Plane, Boa vs. Python plays off a silly snakey premise to entertain as B-grade schlock, but fortunately avoids the common mistake of this kind of material by rarely being boring.

   Boa vs. Python only occasionally drags, with almost every scene building up and leading to some kind of pay off – usually ridiculous – and surpasses that basic (though admirable) premise of two oversized ophidians duking it out. There’s explosions, good looking people disrobing, annoying people being consumed, horrible acting, terrible special effects, snake sex, borderline offensive stereotypes, gaping plot holes, and a disco. Ultimately, the target audience for this film know who they are and they will thoroughly enjoy this offering; the simple way to tell if this is you is by reading the following quote from the film's Wikipedia entry, and judging yourself whether this film is for you:

   “The film is perhaps most notable for a scene featuring the enormous python performing oral sex on a young woman in a parked car. She is eaten (as in consumed for nourishment) shortly thereafter.”

Video

   The transfer itself looks very good, especially considering the low budget. The image is bright and the detail is sharp, which is both a benefit and a curse, as it shows off the incredibly awful, poorly lit CG work done on the two snakes.

   There are only occasional minor film artefacts (a good example at 12:38) that do not distract from the proceedings, and very minor aliasing across the movie. There is some minor grain across the film, including scenes that appear to have been sourced from stock footage and zoomed in (one example is at 1:08).

   English subtitles are available. Based on the portion I sampled with subtitles, the subtitles appear correct and well timed.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue is clear and kept at a reasonable level, although occasionally will be clearly out of sync due to poor ADR.

    The soundtrack is low budget but engaging, featuring clichéd horror music build ups and silences as well as frenetic hammering samples during the “action” scenes.

   The mix is fine although fails to take advantage of the surround, with little environmental effects and almost no usage of the rear speakers. Subwoofer usage is barely noticeable.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Animated Menus with Audio

Original Theatrical Trailer (2:07)

   The disc is barebones, but the transfer and audio quality are very decent.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall