Our little town’s cinema usually gets film ages after everyone else, even after they appear on DVD. “Snakes on a Plane” was no exception. At 90 years old, this cinema is the oldest working cinema in Scotland, and it is a lovely quaint building. I swear the seats must be 90 as well though, as they are not all that comfortable. And that is the way I judge how entertaining a movie is. Let me explain: because of the nature of the seats, after about an hour in the cinema, numbness inevitably sets in. Depending how involved I am in the action of the film, it takes more or less time to notice. “The English Patient” for instance, despite being very worthy, scored high on the numbness front, and not only because of its length… Last night though, watching “Snakes on a Plane”, it was only when getting up to leave the cinema that the lack of sensation in my bottom entered my consciousness. So despite all the negative press, the film must have been at the very least entertaining.

Let’s get one thing clear from the start: this is no masterpiece. And I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be. But I was very much looking forward to seeing it, as I had heard so much about it. Unlike other movies that have been over-hyped (like “Blair Witch Project” which turned out to be not very good at all), this one didn’t disappoint one bit. So let’s look at it in more detail, but not too closely as there isn’t actually an awful lot to examine there…


~The hype~
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Even before the movie was released, there was a tremendous amount of activity on the internet related to “Snakes on a Plane”. It seems the title fired fans’ imaginations (I’m not sure how a film that isn’t even finished can have fans) and soon there were home-made trailers, posters, scenes, dialogues and even songs appearing everywhere. And in an unusual twist, this in turn prompted the film makers to change the movie to bring it into line with fans’ expectations. In particular the now famous sentence uttered by Samuel L. Jackson near the end of the film: “Enough is enough! I have HAD it with these * snakes on this * plane”.


~The plot~
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Well, what can I say other than it is totally ludicrous. Let’s see, a witness to a crime committed by the head of some criminal organisation or other has to be transported to the trial. To that effect, the FBI commandeer the first class section of a passenger plane, unaware that there is a huge number of venomous snakes in the hold of the plane (hence the very naff title) that will be released at a given time during the flight. Thanks to a little pheromone, the snakes’ behaviour is incredibly aggressive and other than attacking the passengers, they also get into the electrics of the plane with disastrous consequences. Hmm…

Every formula of the genre is there, heroism, love, children in danger, pilot dying, plane landed by an amateur, etc. It is eminently predictable and at the same time totally far-fetched. But then, these disaster movies usually are. What I liked about this one though, is that it made no pretence of being clever and in fact it positively relished its absurdity. The phrase “it’s so bad it’s good” has become a bit of a cliché, but in this case it truly applies.

~The cast~
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Only Samuel L. Jackson could have pulled this off. His cult status means he doesn’t have to prove anything, and his presence on screen compensates for any limitation in the script and dialogue. He actually looks as though he is having fun making this movie, and sharing an in-joke with the audience. Which of course he is.

Julianna Margulies (of ER fame) does a good job of the part of the flight attendant and doesn’t overplay it.

There were a few other familiar faces in the cast, including a woman I could have sworn was Jo Brand, but after a little research I don’t think she was.

The snakes are of course an important part of the action. I am no expert, but from where I was sitting, those snakes were definitely enhanced in size, teeth and aggression. And there must have been thousands of the critters!!! As well as some real snakes, dummies, animatronics and computer generated snakes were used to create the illusion of all these snakes crawling about.

“Snakes on a Plane” was directed by David R. Ellis.


~What I thought~
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This film hovers between disaster movie and spoof. The snakes for instance, are more funny than scary, and the deaths they cause can never be taken too seriously. Once or twice though, you might jump in surprise or shock. So whilst it isn’t an all-out spoof in the category of Airplane, with a joke in every frame, it still does a good job of sending up the disaster movie genre. Most of all, it is entertaining. There literally isn’t a dull moment and I went from tears of laughter to jumping out of my seat in seconds flat. I would urge everyone to go and see it at the cinema, as I don’t think a DVD would have the same impact. Don’t expect anything too clever, but expect to be entertained. One strange side-effect of the movie I noticed last night was that it resulted in strangers discussing the movie as they were leaving the cinema. I haven’t seen that in years…



*Add your own bad language in this space. This is a family site after all…

Recommended: Yes

Movie Mood: Funny Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Script