5/5 Sleazy film, but interesting story and GREAT MUSIC!
  by Baberufus (West Jordan, UT USA)
OK, this film is not for prudes--it's pretty sleazy. It's about a young nymphomaniac who ends up in the care of a single black man who has just lost his wife to his brother and is ticked off about it. What happens between them is pretty unusual and is what makes this film unique.

I love Hill Country Blues, the music championed by such luminaries as the late great R.L. Burnside and the North Mississippi Allstars. the NMA contribute to the soundtrack, and most, if not all of the songs sung by Samuel T. Jackson (who does a great job) are R.L. Burnside songs. Just the fact that a filmmaker is honoring the music of the under-heralded R.L. Burnside is enough to deserve a five-star rating. Burnside's sidemen (including his grandson Cedric) appear in the film to accompany Jackson's performances, adding authenticity to the music.

And what the hey, the movie ends overall on a pretty good note, so some of the "dirtiness" you might feel watching this film should disappear by the end!

Living and singing the blues was never all peaches and cream, hence the dark tones in this flick--just makes it all bluesier! RECOMMENDED FILM for all blues fans! Oh, and for all Christina Ricci fans--she's pretty hot in this film! :-)

4/5 I LIKED THIS FILM
  by fmwaalex (Austin, TX USA)
BLACK SNAKE MOAN

I remember when this film first came out all I heard about was some big controversy about a black man chaining up a naked white woman. My first thought was who cares I have seen more offensive things on cartoons, I mean come on. So the time went by and I never had the desire to watch this movie, at first. Eventually my brother brought this by and said he had been wanting to see it forever, not because of the stuff sounding the film but because of the great Sam Jackson. I agreed and said if he was in it then it probably would be good, plus I liked the writer/director's last film before this one. So I gave in and sat down to watch the movie and while I never felt offended ever threw out this I was surprised because I had no idea Justin Timberlake was in this.

Rae [Ricci] is a disturbed girl who seems to not be able to overcome a past traumatic event involving sexual abuse and rape. In fact it is so bad that when she goes into her attacks she resorts to the only thing she learned as a little girl, sex with men. So after her man leaves for the military named Ronnie [Timberlake] she immediately goes into these attacks caused by his absence. She goes on to have sex with any and every man that she can when that feeling hits. That all starts to change one night after she is beaten and left for dead by Ronnie's brother later to be found on the road by Lazarus [Jackson].

Lazarus has some problems of his own seeing that his wife has left him for his brother and his blues career is long gone. He is having enough trouble with out Rae when he stumbles upon her, he takes her in and starts to care for her. While in his care she comes in and out of conciseness every time in the middle of one of her episodes. Each time she throws are self at him and continues to do so when she comes out of it, I guess to thank him. It is at this point he sees what is going on and decides to cure her of her sickness, hence the now famous her tied up with a chain scenes. The movie plays out in what really was not all that controversial and actually kinda makes sense in a weird way. Ronnie is coming home and he has problems himself as we learn and Lazarus has a few friends that become involved.

After watching this movie I did not see what the big deal was and can only believe it is because of the way the film was marketed. If the roles were reversed and an old white man had a young sex craved black woman tied up I still don't see any problem as long as the story was the same, but I am sure that would have been just as controversial. I think writer/director Craig Brewer did a good job with this film and took a whole different way than what I was lead to believe this film was. The film was actually a good piece of entertainment which is what films are all about, mostly. The film did have problems like most but over all I enjoyed it, a cool film about very different people helping each other find themselves. Also the shots in this film are excellent with the opening credits as a great example as is the blues music choosen for this, great stuff.

As for performances Samuel L. Jackson as always was good and played the ex blues singer Lazarus well, he seems real dark at times but over the course of his time spent with Rae he becomes who he once was. Christina Ricci just may be the MVP of this production with a wonderfully sick performance. Sick as in the characters problems not a twisted horror movie kinda way, and she even gets topless and has some sex scenes. She goes from a sex crazed victim [love the scene with her mother] to a young woman learning how to deal with her problems. Still I was very surprised at the time I saw this with the performance of singer/actor Justin Timberlake. I have seen him in other things since [each time he has been great] but this was really the first time I can remember seeing him in a role like this. Timberlake impressed me with his performance here and the way he played the character when he returned home only to learn of his wife's affairs is great, turns out he has anxiety problems so he is messed up to. The last scene with Ricci and Timberlake is probably my favorite and he really shines in that scene. John Cothran as well is excellent in this as the preacher friend of Lazarus, Michael Raymond-James is great in this as well.

This is not the best movie ever and some may say it is not the best follow up to his Academy award winning "Hustle & Flow" but I liked it. Sure this film could have used some work but I think most fault lies within the studios marketing of the film. Even the people involved with this film Ricci in particular did not like how it was marketed. If handled correctly and shown for what kind of film it truly is the film would have probably faired better. But hey who am I to say that, I am just a guy behind a keyboard, what do I know?


4/5 A little bit more than just sexy exploitation junk
  by Muzzlehatch (the walls of Gormenghast)
I've got to admit, I got this for less than noble reasons, perhaps even prurient ones. Christina Ricci running around near-naked for the whole film? That's something I have to see...

OK, enough of the dirty old man act. EXCEPT, that's what the film is aiming at, isn't it? The poster -- the ads -- the first scene -- this is going to be an exploitation film, and an over the top one at that: nubile, waifish nymphomaniac Rae (Ricci) ends up bloodied and beaten, on farmer and ex-bluesman Lazarus' (Samuel L Jackson) doorstep, just at the moment when Jackson seems about ready to go 'round the bend.

So Lazarus, after nursing the physically sick Rae back to health over a couple of days does what any rural farmer in the south would do with a woman half his age and of another race -- he chains her to a radiator in some odd misguided effort to cleanse her of "evil spirits" or some such nonsense; it's never spelled out very explicitly just what Lazarus believes, or doesn't believe, he can do.

There's plenty of sleazy, trashy fun to be had here; our heroine does indeed run around in next to nothing for nearly the whole film, and Jackson's tortured musician Lazarus embodies a whole lot of fun southern black stereotypes -- and I do mean fun; this is certainly a film that tries to avoid racism at all costs. If anything, it's saying that sure, blacks and white are a little different -- they're just messed up in different ways, and we'd best try to understand that, because we're all in it together. They certainly are in director Craig Brewer's vision of the mid-south -- this small town has to be the best-integrated place in America.

But never mind all that. The film moves, the dialogue is mostly crisp, the acting (especially, and surprisingly, by Justin Timberlake as Ricci's rather confused boyfriend Ronnie) is solid. The biggest problem that it has I think, is that it doesn't know whether to continue down the sordid route, or attempt a little morality play and make nice at the end. Unfortunately it goes the latter route and ends up feeling too nicey-nice, but there was enough realistic local color and heart to the whole thing that I still found myself enjoying it.

5/5 Where the hell were the Oscar nominations?!?
  by Nathan J. Stalker (Eatontown, NJ)
This is a movie that the Academy somehow overlooked. Not since "Saving Private Ryan" lost Best Picture to a sub-average "Shakespeare in Love" have I been so perplexed as to "what were they thinking?". Black Snake Moan is a cool, sexy movie with a lot of class. Samuel Jackson finally gets a movie worthy of his talent (best work since "Pulp Fiction" and "The Negotiator", and Christina Ricci is worthy of a best actress nod as well. The story is dark, the music is soulfull, and the movie was at the top of my "must own" list.

1/5 horrible
  by charli (Sembach,Germany)
The only movie I have ever had to walk out on. Pure garbage. Horrible plot, acting, and theme. It was offensive, just for the sake of being offensive.