The movie event of the year is here! After an unexpected amount of net buzz and fan hype, Snakes on a Plane is here and its bloody good fun.
Samuel L. ‘Muthafuckin’ Jackson stars as FBI agent Neville Flynn assigned to keep Sean Jones (witness to a murder) alive long enough to testify against mob boss Eddie Kim. Eddie Kim and his crew have other plans however, and have loaded a cargo full of poisonous snakes on board Pacific Air Flight 121 and have sprayed pheromones everywhere, ensuring the snakes will be pissed-off to the max once they are unleashed 30,000 feet above the air.
David R. Ellis always delivers the perfect popcorn movie fix and Snakes is no exception. The movie takes the cheesy B-movie premise and runs with it, delivering chills, thrills and gory blood spills along the way.
The cast are all good, likeable, recognisable faces and actually manage to give their characters some depth, despite the fact that screen time is limited and they’re not the main focus of the movie. This allows for the odd moment of genuine sadness for characters ranging from newlyweds to a single parent and her young baby to two young boys flying without their parents for the first time. The flight attendants also make for a solid team with due to retire Grace (the excellent Lin Shaye), about to become a lawyer Claire (Julianna Margulies) sexy and sweet Tiffany (Sunny Mabrey) and stereotypical camp trolley dolly Kenny (the hilarious Bruce James).
The film takes its time setting up the story and playing on your fears before the snakes are unleashed and all hell breaks loose. I was surprised at how gory things were once chaos ensued, and it wasn’t all about snake bites. Impalements aplenty as well as some rather disgusting and painful snake related deaths were the order of the day, and they were truly awesome.
The action set pieces are well handled as expected by Ellis who is a dab hand at this, but he also does well with the comedy and the slight suspense sequences too.
OVERALL SUMMARY
In conclusion, Snakes on a Plane is the best fun I’ve had at the movies in ages. It’s the kind of film that cannot be ruined by teenagers screaming in the aisles and it has the perfect mix of gags and laughs as well as frights to have gore fans whooping it up. If this film doesn’t make number 1 this weekend it was robbed.
