Snakes on A Plane: Offers Plenty of Snakes but Not a Lot of Intelligence
FBI Agent, Nelville Flynn (Jackson) is transporting a young man, Sean Jones (Nathan Philips; Wolf Creek) from Honolulu, Hawaii to Los Angeles to testify against a man he witnessed beat an innocent man to death. These Hawaiian thugs try to kill Sean at his home. Then they try to get him on the flight.
Samuel L. Jackson’s Nelville Flynn tells Sean, “Do what I say and you’ll live.” When the evil thug’s snakes break loose, everything becomes crazy. People are bitten and die within a matter of minutes. Tensions rise. Remaining survivors trample each other to death. Only a young flight attendent, Claire Miller (Margulies) can keep everything and everyone in control. It turns out to be Nelville’s job to kill every last snake he can see.
As a group, such various characters as Mercedes (Rachel Blanchard), Three G’s (Flex Alexander) and his two best friends/ bodyguards (Kenan Thompson, and Keith Dallas) all seem to work together so well, the most unlikely character is elected to land the plane. His only flying experience is playing a “flight simulator” on his Playstation.
In the tradition of most horror/ action films like Alien or Predator, this action-thriller-comedy traps groups of innocent victims alone just to kill them off in record time. They give us some very sex-related thrilling jokes. A woman and her boyfriend in the “mile high club” are killed off in a restroom. A man gets bitten in the wrong place while taking a leak in another bathroom. It’s after this point when all logic and intelligence in Snakes On A Plane is thrown out the window.
If you let your mind go numb, and sit back to take a wild brainless ride, then you’ll probably love Snakes On A Plane. There are shocks and chilling moments that make the more recent horror films like Pulse seem placid. But, the film never seems to know what it is. Is it a horror film, a comedy or an action-thriller? Of course, no one ever breaks character. Samuel L. Jackson looks as cool as ever, but if they working with a better script and they knew the mess of a movie they were making, they might not have signed on for their roles.
Overall, Snakes On A Place is not a bad movie. With the right approach, this film directed by stunt-coordinator David R. Ellis can be a joyride of every chill and thrill that made Raiders of The Lost Ark the masterpiece is was. If you go to see Snakes On A Plane thinking that it’s a Tom Clancy, theoretical and intelligent action thriller such as Patriot Games, chances are you’ll be sorely disappointed. But, looking at the title, I doubt you’ll consider it anything but the ladder.
