| Product: |
Snakes on a Plane (DVD) |
| Date: |
03/03/08 (98 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Mad, gruesome action film
Disadvantages: Entirely ridiculous
When Sean Jones accidentally witnesses gang leader Terry Chen committing a murder, his attempts to leave the scene unnoticed are unsuccessful and he quickly finds himself in grave danger. It's a good job that FBI agent Neville Flynn is on the case. Rescuing Sean from the gang leaders' men, Flynn persuades Jones that he should testify against Chen to finally bring to an end his reign of terror. Jones reluctantly agrees and it's not long before he is boarding a flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles, where the court proceedings are due to take place. But Chen has other ideas. Realising that his must neutralise the prosecution's star witness, he sets about an elaborate assassination plot, arranging for crate loads of venomous snakes to be released on board the plane and then injecting the air with a powerful pheromone that ensures that the serpents are at their most aggressive. So what do you do when you find Snakes on a Plane? It's time for Neville Flynn to find out.....
Part disaster movie, part action-thriller and part horror movie, Snakes on a Plane was one of the most-hyped films of 2006. Prior to its release, the film attracted enormous interest online, with the creative team apparently taking on board feedback from the Internet community who eventually shaped some of the film's content and dialogue. Realistically, the finished product could never live up to the expectations, but in spite of the film's limited box-office success, it remains a bizarre, outlandish and completely over-the-top production that should probably have never seen the light of day.
The plot is ridiculous from start to finish. This never seems to be something that concerns the director, who is prepared to throw anything into the mix to get a laugh or a squirm. The science behind the premise is sketchy to say the least and it wouldn't do well to analyse the film's events. Needless to say, for anyone who has an aversion to snakes, this film probably isn't for you. If you thought snakes were nasty before, you ain't seen nothing yet. A snake jumps out of the airplane toilet and latches onto one unfortunate man's member. They drop out of the overhead lockers; slither down gangways and appear out of nearly every crevice possible. Just about every exotic snake species is featured here, and it quickly becomes "spot the snake". The creative team prefers the more photogenic varieties, so the more colourful or curious the snake, the more likely that it is going to drop into somebody's on board tipple. Predictably, the big gun is left for later in the film; a predictable arrival on the scene of a particularly unpleasant serpent, rather like the arrival of the veloceraptors in Jurassic Park. The slaughter is gruesome, in the extreme. This is not a film for the squeamish (the 15-certificate is quite surprising).
The trouble is that whilst this is all done with a sense of fun, it quickly runs out of steam. The confines of the plane add to the peril but, surprisingly, it feels more like an airplane disaster movie than anything else. This isn't helped by the camp characterisation of the plane's passengers and crew who find themselves in a variety of predicaments, culminating (again) predictably in the complete absence of anyone who knows how to fly the plane. As if to provide some respite from the airborne disaster taking shape, the action switches at intervals to Flynn's FBI partner on the ground trying to find out who supplied the snakes and which ones they are, so that a (conveniently) knowledgeable snake expert can ensure that venom antidotes are supplied correctly if and when the plane lands. Given the volume of different snake species on the plane, it's never really explained how anyone would be expected to know who was bitten by what and it's clear that this is really just a supplementary plot line to keep things at pace.
Samuel L Jackson (Flynn) seems painfully aware from the outset that he's only in it for the money. He struggles with the ridiculous script (even when he gets to let loose with an infamous line that seemed to be at the centre of all the Internet hype) and has a rather sheepish expression on his face from start to finish. None of the other cast members is memorable enough to pass comment, due in part to the fact that most of them get picked off by one of the snakes at a rapid rate.
On the one hand, you never really know whether to laugh or throw up. The snake slaughter is often so grisly that you find yourself sniggering nervously to distract yourself from the fact that it's all so unpleasant. The combination of different genres means it never quite succeeds at any of them and in spite of the fairly short running time, it's quite a relief when it's all over.
On the other hand, Snakes on a Plane exhibits an air of mischief sorely lacking in modern cinema. The pace is relentless, leaving scarce time to actually question what's happening and it's unquestionably exciting - you really will be perched on the edge of your seat.
Whether you enjoy Snakes on a Plane or not will depend almost entirely on whether you like watching scores of one-dimensional, unsympathetic people being picked off one by one by a vicious horde of colourful, venomous reptiles. The choice is yours.
Summary: Asp-etically pleasing disaster horror movie
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