Film Review
See ‘Snakes on a Plane’ before
It Slithers Out of View

By K.K. Bracken (September 14, 2006)

Do not go to Snakes on a Plane looking for the following: thought-provoking dialogue, Oscar-worthy performances, or symbolism of any kind. Do go if you're looking for-- well, snakes on a plane.

The beauty of this movie lies in its honesty. It promises action, comedy, and gruesome death sequences-- and it delivers in abundance. Thinking is optional.

The film hurriedly sets up a plot to support the title: native Hawaiian Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips) witnesses an LA crime boss commit a brutal murder. Special Agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) is assigned to protect him until he can testify in Los Angeles. A hired assassin plants time-release crates full of snakes in the cargo-hold of the civilian trans-Pacific flight Jones and Flynn are traveling on, reasoning if the venom doesn't kill Jones, the snakes will pull enough wires out that the plane will crash.

Samuel L. Jackson is the highlight of the film as FBI agent Neville Flynn. He takes every line seriously, from the most absurd ("Well that's good news-- snakes on crack") to the beloved "Get these mother[lovin'] snakes off this mother[lovin'] plane!" He knows exactly what he's doing onscreen, and the audience couldn't help but cheer as he slashed, shot, and even tazered his serpentine foes.

A series of stock characters bolsters the film's B-movie stardom. Each has a problem, and if he or she cannot master their quirk, they die. Example: pompous British businessman Paul Oswald (Gerard Plunkett) takes out his anti-American sentiment on various unfortunate passengers, and is squeezed to death by a python.

Kudos should also be given to Kenan Thompson. Though his role as a video-game obsessed bodyguard wasn't large, the laughs he received were second only to Jackson's.

Director David R. Ellis managed to make a sort of elite B-movie. Most of his shots are purely for shock-value, but a particularly snazzy effect is the green-tinted snake point-of-view. Sometimes, it was obvious that a certain snake was CGI and sometimes they seemed all too real-- but once in your seat, you don't really care.

There are some films that are simply better in theaters, and "Snakes" is no exception. There's something about a cobra hissing and spitting 10 times its normal size that really gets the blood going. I can honestly say I've never had more fun at the movies. See "Snakes" before it slithers out of the theaters.