Snakes on a Plane flat out is a movie that should just not have worked. I mean, when you have the entire movie in the title, where is it that you can honestly go from there? Without a doubt, there is no way that this movie should have worked, it’s a stupid concept stretched out into a two hour movie that has only become as notorious as it is because some people on the internet thought it would be a lark to make fun of it. You want to know what though? Not only does Snakes on a Plane work as a great B-movie, it also works as a pretty good movie in and of itself.
I could go into the plot, but, come on.
There’s a bunch of snakes!
ON A PLANE!
WITH SAMUEL L. JACKSON!
Well, all right, there’s a bit more to it than that. Surfer dude Sean (Nathan Phillips) while out riding his dirtbike through the Hawaiian wilderness witnesses notorious mobster Eddie Kim (Byron Lawson) murder a vacationing Los Angeles District Attorney. He barely makes it out with his life, but is clearly on the mobsters radar. Enter FBI Agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) assigned to protect Sean. He grabs the kid and books them both on a flight to Los Angeles so Sean can testify and put Kim in jail for good. It all looks well and easy, but Kim’s not going down without a fight. Given how hard it is to sneak anything resembling a weapon onboard, they go a different route in taking out the witness: sneak a bunch of hyperactive and deadly-poisonous snakes onboard and release them halfway through the flight so they can effectively take the plane down. All right, not the most efficient of plans, but damn it if it doesn’t make for an entertaining movie.
All right, with a plot and a story like this, you’d expect the writers to have been, well, high. Honestly I don’t know what they weren’t, but even if they were they did a better job with the material than they should have. You see, with most monster movies of similar ilks they’re films that try to be smarter than they really are and it shows, as in it looks damn stupid. Snakes on a Plane takes another approach, in that it aims to be stupid, but without insulting the intelligence of the viewers. It’s hard to truly put into words, but it really works, in that every move made by the good guys and the bad guys alike is pretty damn logical. The characters are surprisingly fleshed out, and after a while, despite their being the basic monster movie archetypes we’ve all come to know and hate, we’re rooting for people not to die as much as we’re rooting for others to get an immediate and painful death.
The cast and crew behind this film also clearly knew what they were in and were clearly having fun with it, as opposed to most “artistes” who would otherwise be slumming in a project like this. Director and former stuntman David Ellis (of Final Destination 2 fame) puts his experience with the action genre to the limit as he delivers a tense and surprisingly action-packed film for a story that takes place in a flying metal tube. Julianna Margulies provides an excellent kick-ass-flight-attendant, and though not quite Karen Black, she manages to hold her own quite well. The supporting cast is great considering what the film is, but what you really come to see (aside from the snakes, more on them soon) is Sam “The Man” Jackson. Does he deliver? Oh yeah. Does he get to use motherfucker a lot? Fuck yeah. The driving force behind this movie and the man who made sure its title stayed where it should have tackles his role with great gusto and a look of sheer amusement across his face through the better portion of the film. Samuel L. Jackson, be he a Jedi Master or Shaft himself always delivers, and his part in Snakes on a Plane is no different. He still is the man.
So, what about the films real stars? You know, the snakes that the title so boasts about? Well, for the most part the snake effects are pretty hit or miss, but they’re appropriately frightening if not always the most convincing. Let’s face it ladies and gents, animals are a bitch to train, let alone animals with no ears that see only heat and have lethal bites. As such, most of the snakes are added artificially into the movie through the route of computer generated imagery. Some of them work marvelously, particularly the boa. Others, well, not so much. They are quite clearly computer generated, and it does get a bit distracting at times. However, in its own way the cheesy effects seem to add to the charm this film possesses, and instead of taking away from it, they add to the whole Snakes on a Plane experience.
On principle alone, Snakes on a Plane should have been one of the worst movies of the year. In reality, it’s without a doubt one of the most entertaining rides you’re bound to find all year. And as one great convicted felon would say, that’s a good thing.
