Snakes On A Plane Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

Snakes on a Plane

Snakes on a Plane is a profoundly moving film, a morality tale for our times. It will become a beloved modern classic... Nope, it's no good, I can't keep a straight face.

We all know what this film is, it's Snakes on a Plane, it really is that simple. Like I Was A Teenage Werewolf or Santa Claus Conquers the Martians the title tells you everything you need to know. It's a B-Movie which means it's probably destined to be looked down on by critics, but here's the thing, it's a great B-movie.

Much of this is probably down to director David R Ellis who seems to be specialising in this kind of mass entertainment having made Final Destination 2 (the best of the series) and Cellular (which I think I may now have to see). Ellis clearly understands what this film is and he delivers the goods. The snake attacks are nicely done (even if the effects aren't seamless) and there's a nice spread of jumps and more comical moments during the attacks and outside the plane there's a fun cast of characters (Bobby Cannavale as an FBI agent, Todd Louiso as a snake expert) to provide just enough colour to keep things interesting as well as turning the the wheels of the plot.

Performance wise Samuel L Jackson plays... oh lets be honest... he plays Samuel L Jackson on a plane but for this that's okay. He shouts at people, he says motherf**ker quite a bit but he's so obviously having so much fun that it is contagious. Yes the famous, fan written, line does get said but it's not the best Jackson line in the film and it's almost worth sitting through the film only to hear his reaction to being told the snakes have been given a pheremone to make them crazed and attack people.

The rest of the cast are fine. Julianna Margulies keeps a straight face as the stewardess who helps Jackson and David Kochener has a collection of teriffic wisecracks to work his way through.

You should see Snakes on a Plane, it could have been the epitome of all that is wrong with Hollywood but instead it's a teriffic popcorn entertainment and that's about all you can ask of it.

Slitheringly bad

I didn't think I would like this film and in the end I loathed it. Why the hell Samuel L Jackson agreed to this venture is beyond me. By far the best actors were the snakes, who suddenly paraded more teeth than Godzilla and more attitude than Rocky Balboa. Anyone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of snakes could see how laughably the story was constructed.

More cliche ridden than a 1950s B movie, pulling every low blow available within a paper thin plot, this is an action feature which makes TV adverts seem preferable. By the end of the film my sympathies were definitely with the snakes which get a bad enough press without nonsense such as this. If you want a total no brainer for your entertainment then this one is for you, otherwise watch paint drying.