Too many fans seem to be blown away

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

"Vipers" qualifies as a genuinely exciting horror chiller that will make your skill crawl about genetically enhanced snakes that invade an isolated vacation resort island in the Pacific Northwest and turn half of the residents into luncheon meat. Tara Reid of "American Pie" stars as a savvy blond horticulturist who grows pot when she is not selling bonsai trees to tourists and Jonathan Scarfe plays the new guy on the island who has come to take over for the old doctor who plans to retire. Happily, this Sci-Fi Channel creature feature from producers Robert Halmi Jr., and Robert Halmi Sr., surpasses their other schlocky made-for-cable outings like "Grizzly Rage." Although the computer-generated-imagery of hundreds of snakes run amok has elicited jeers galore, the serpents do not look that cheesy. Of course, you can tell from the start that the snakes are fake, but you have to approach this epic some suspension of disbelief if you want to enjoy it, and "Vipers" is entertaining.Director Bill Corcoran, who has done a little bit of everything in terms of television shows, knows enough to never let the momentum flag in the preposterous Brian Katkin plot. Elements of Katkin's screenplay movie recall "Deep Blue Sea," where experiments were conducted on genetically enhanced sharks to yield a cure Alzheimer's disease and "Jurassic Park" where replicated dinosaurs broke out of an island research facility and swarmed into California to raise havoc. Corbin Bernsen has a minor but important role as a villain bereft of a conscience who is prepared to sacrifice lives so that his company can reap millions for their stockholders.Universal Bio Tech Industries has achieved astonishing results in the containment of breast cancer by using the venom from horned vipers. Indeed, idealistic Dr. Collins (Jessica Steen of "Armageddon") is gratified that she helped save one 28-year old woman from the ravages of the disease. Her celebratory attitude dries up when she learns from amoral company CEO, Burton (Corbin Bernsen of "Major League"), that a disaster has occurred at a remote island research laboratory that may endanger their successes. It seems that the horned vipers, which were supposed to be destroyed, have gotten off the island. These genetically enhanced reptiles are stealthy, extremely lethal, and agile. In the opening scene, a crook security chief tries to steal the snakes but he is thwarted. A shoot-out ensues and the glass container that houses these evil snakes shatters when bullets strike it. The nasty snakes slither out and start biting scientists. Immediately, we know that these hideous snakes represent a terrific challenge that our heroes are going to have to use their "MacGyver" like ingenuity to overcome. These evil things not only bite but they also dine on the flesh of their victims. Somehow, these snakes escape to Eden Cove and all Hell and hysteria breaks loose. Burton dispatches Dr. Collins to Eden Cover to assess the situation. Little does she know that Burton only wants his men to retrieve a snake and then have the island destroyed using Homeland Security to eradicate a possible plague.The cast is first-rate and you feel sympathetic toward them. For a change these victims show some sense. They figure out a way to distract the scores of snakes surrounding them to go elsewhere while one group rushes to a boat and flees the island to stop Homeland Security from obliterating Eden Cover at sunrise on the following day. The camaraderie that develops between the contentious factions in this group so that they band together to help each other makes this an above-average horror movie. Romance blossoms between the new guy doctor and Tara Reid because he was with her boyfriend in the Gulf War when the unfortunate fellow died. He tells her at one point that her boyfriend and he used to quote Pink Floyd lyrics to keep from going insane and the night that he died they were doing this when their Humvee struck an improvised explosive device. When the group that plans to distract the snakes so the other group can make it to the boat sets off on their mission, the two shared Pink Floyd lyrics. You can see that "Vipers" amounts to more than a schlocky science fiction saga. People who abhor snakes should avoid this shiver-inducing saga.

This was my sixth title I have viewed from the Maneater series. I wasn't expecting much at all except a way to waste a Sunday morning. However I was shocked. I was expecting them to use National Geographic footage of vipers lunging at people, but instead found a cool movie that I really enjoyed.Now some people just can't appreciate b-movies simply because they seem to actually care for the mainstream stuff and don't even want to give such stuff as Vipers a chance. If you want something award worthy your in the wrong place.However this is a fun little movie, I was into the characters and I'll say it's the best title I've seen from the Maneater series overall.

Genetically altered CGI vipers go on the rampage on a small island in this SCIFI original film. The plot has something to do with a cure for cancer in the venom of the snakes and the evil company that tinkered with them to get better results.Scifi has been churning out made for TV horror and scifi flicks for years now and they've become so generic that at least among my friends we describe films as the sort of thing they might run. Vipers is that sort of thing. Its a low brow horror film that gives you exactly what you expect from a film that premiered on SCIFI-and viewed in that vein worth a box of popcorn and a soda.

What should one expect from the Maneater Series' latest "nature gone amok" feature, Vipers? Other than a bunch of flesh-eating snakes, not very much... but that's okay, because this flick certainly isn't trying to deliver anything but over-the-top serpentine carnage.Corben Bernsen and his cronies at Universal BioTech are attempting to cure breast cancer with genetically-altered Horned Vipers (which, as we all know by now, makes perfect sense) when a batch of them escape and head over to the picturesque Oregon island village of Eden Cove. Things get ugly... and reeeally fast, but thanks to the dashing new doctor in town (Jonathan Scarfe), a cute-as-a-button botanist (Tara Reid), and the scientist responsible for the snakes' aggressive tendencies (Jessica Steen), these citizens might just have a chance at survival.If one is willing to throw logic out the window almost immediately, Vipers is actually fairly fun little romp. Sure, the snakes howl like dying vampires when they're killed and there appears to be only one person in the entire town of Eden Cove under the age of 20, but it's relatively easy to overlook these simple misgivings. Even the fact that the vipers actually EAT their victims ends up becoming hilariously entertaining, effectively transforming them from typical snakes to slithering piranhas.Keeping its forked tongue firmly in-cheek during one of Vipers' first scenes, a newlywed African American couple go to make love in their lakeside tent, only to be attacked by the titular critters. Of course, their racial identity calls for them to be the first to go, and the script (attributed to Scarecrow Gone Wild's Brian Katkin) allows them to note that it's "gonna be hard to go back to da city" - since it's painfully obvious that no minorities whatsoever live in Eden Cove.The direction by Bill Corcoran (who is currently helming the Sci-Fi Original, Rise of the Gargoyle) is across the board, with several of Vipers' action sequences staged very well – albeit a tad dark – and most of its dialogue barely sufferable. When little Maggie's parents are presumably killed, she sobs to Reid's Nicky about what it's like to lose someone important. Watching Ms. Reid then almost instantly break down as she describes losing her fiancé to war is amusingly groan-inducing, especially in the midst of an all-out shrieking snake attack.Thankfully, the practical gore effects are quite good, with literal geysers of the red stuff spraying out of anyone foolish enough to get within striking distance of the vipers. Unfortunately, the snakes themselves are comprised entirely of the lowest of low-rent CG effects. Whether they're squirming unbelievably down a gravel road or flailing almost vertically while chowing down on someone, they never once, over the course of the entire film, give the impression that they're actually "there".Early on, a gun-toting dude is asked if it's hunting season. His response? "Almost." (cue ominous music) Reid later howls, "Homeland Security?! This isn't terrorism, these are snakes!!!" and, near the film's finale, our stunning doctor arms himself with a flamethrower that he names "the mongoose" (get it?!). If ever there was a hungry screaming snakes movie starring Tara Reid that you should not take seriously, this is most certainly the one… and Vipers makes no pretenses at being anything but what it is.At its core, Vipers is basically a Sci-Fi Channel Movie-of-the-Week with higher production values and similarly shoddy computer-generated beasties. It's got some tasty gore, just enough sex to keep the hard-pressed titillated, and some beautiful locations. Sure, it's far from theatrical-caliber film-making, but if you're looking for 90 minutes of dumb, slithering fun, this disc might just shock your skin off.