Review of Snakes on a Plane (2006) by Stuart M — 19 Aug 2018
It is wonderful to see a movie that is exactly what it proclaims to be. The film promises snakes on a plane and we get nothing less. The plot is absurd of course, but that's the point. It's not all as poorly done as this suggests.
The early character scenes are phenomenal at sketching out clear roles for the dozen or so victims, I mean? no, victims is accurate. These characters aren't complicated of course, but we're given everything we need to know about them in one scene each and they're consistent from then on.
It's well done. The issue from here on is that the film is really straddling three genres at once: the action thriller, the disaster movie, and the monster film. And the demands of the different genres do not always mesh.
The police component is particularly poorly served, which is a shame because that's often the most entertaining part. But Samuel L. Jackson's got little to do beyond look serious and killing the occasional snake.
Yeah, the whole thing about the disaster movie genre is that it's an ensemble piece and this tries to be an ensemble piece without an ensemble, the valued introductions and performances aside. So it could have been a lot better if they'd had something for Jackson to do beyond kill snakes.
Some other goal. I dunno. It seems mostly they just wanted to think of innovative ways to have snakes kill people. Which is great and all but it's a waste of Jackson's entertaining performance and (aside from the one line everyone knows and repeats) he's not given any good dialogue.
This review of Snakes on a Plane (2006) was written by Stuart M on 19 Aug 2018.
Snakes on a Plane has generally received mixed reviews.
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