Samsploitation, or: How I Learned To Talk Really Really Loud and Love the Snakes

Back in the day, there were all sorts of fun subgenres that would be categorized with the umbrella of 'exploitation films.' Anybody that's in NYC can head to St. Mark's Place for a visit to Kim's Video to check out some of these subgenres: blaxsploitation, chixploitation (with its own subgenre 'women in prison'), hicksploitation, apesploitation, and my personal favorite "[Charles] Bronson Is God."

Now it's beginning to come to my attention that there is a new exploitation subgenre on the rise. In fact, it's been around for years, but I'm going to stick my flag in it and declare its existence: Samsploitation.



People are simply taking advantage of the fact that Samuel L. Jackson is not the pickiest actor in the world, it seems. Stranger yet, Sam has proven that he can be a hell of an actor. Jackie Brown? Pulp Fiction? And with Black Snake Moan, we see that it doesn't require him to collaborate with Tarantino and that he's simply given up on himself after the mid-90's.

We all remember how much fun it was waiting for Snakes on a Plane to come out and the fun of thinking about Sam yelling about the motherfucking snakes on his motherfucking plane. Ah, the joys. Although his upcoming film doesn't have the hilarious title, it looks like Mr. Jackson will be striking similarly funny-but-probably-shouldn't-be gold with Lakeview Terrace:





And looking at Samuel L's 116 film credits to date on IMDb, you can pluck out plenty more examples earlier on, the most obvious one being Deep Blue Sea. Sam Jackson vs super-intelligent sharks? And getting killed halfway through the film while delivering an inspirational speech? Fits like a glove. He even stars in Shaft, a remake of one of the most popular and well-known blaxploitation flicks of all time.

Of course, I haven't seen most of the movies he's been in because, face it.. he gets himself in some crappy movies. But maybe I'm wrong about them. What do you think? Are xXx and xXx: State of the Union and worth including in here? Did The Man tickle your funny-bone enough to include it in the elite genre of Samsploitation? And are you like me and half-tempted to include the Star Wars prequels in the genre, just because of the lame-ass dialog ("Mmm, good relations with the Wookies, I have") and the fact they're just awful?