Review of Snakes on a Plane (2006) by David W — 20 Aug 2010

If you go into this film expecting anything more than Samuel L. Jackson, snakes, and a plane you will be severely disappointed. Luckily I got just what I wanted from Snakes On A Plane, a hillariously campy and idiotic "thriller", that thankfully doesn't take its self seriously in the least bit. The ridiculousness aids this film in making it an easy way to waste one and a half hours on its gleeful fun.

Imagine this, a young guy just happens to ride his dirtbike to where a ruthless chinese gangster kills someone and now he has to fly to LA with two badass FBI agents to testify in the trial. Only the gangsters hire a guy to fill the plane with poisonous snakes and douse the passengers with pheromones to turn the creep-crawlies hostile. As improbable as that is, this is the kind of film that you don't watch for a tense and dramatic plot. No the people behind this took the low road and sent the plane from malfunction to passenger death around every corner all the while more and more vicious snakes fill the plane. One of my personal favorite parts was the eerie "snake vision" where we got to see the beasts stalk their screaming pray from a first person point of view. We watch as the mismatched passengers and crew battle the snakes and themselves all the while the FBI scrambles on the ground to do something to help the situation.

If you can guess, the script and characters are all hollow. The dialogue is hillariously awful but once again, when Samuel L. Jackson is the star of the movie, you couldn't possibly expect Lawrence Olivier. Samuel L. Jackson is as always one bad motherf*cker and he serves his purpose as not only the resourceful, snake-snapping protagonist, but as one of the film's most redeeming qualities. His hallowed line toward the film's climax is enough for me to bump this rate up to 6 instead of 5.

This film is easy to bash, but I won't do anything serious because I understand what this film set out to do. I had a mildly fun time with this movie and if you find it on TV and you are not in a completely terrible mood, this film will amuse you like it did me.