Snakes on a Plane - Movie Review

I watched this movie with zero expectations. And actually it is not all that bad. It starts out with a good premise at a plot (that crashes and burns about 20 minutes into the movie), its funny at times, scary at times, and has a collection of interesting stereotype people for snake munches. Plus the snakes look fairly real most of the time--there are a couple of sequences in the film where the CG is not so good. Overall its an okay film, and would be worth matinee to see.

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We start off in Hawaii. Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips) looks like you typical surfer dude and he is out riding his motorbike in one of the remoter areas of Hawaii. He accidentally witnesses the murder of the district attorney of Los Angeles by this Asian mob guy, Eddie Kim (Byron Lawson). Kim begins immediately trying to kill Sean, but the FBI gets to him first. He is rescue from Eddie's hit squad by Nelville Flynn (Samuel L Jackson). The FBI leans on Sean until he finally agrees to testify against Kim. So they now must fly him from Hawaii to LA, which is a five-hour flight over the ocean (that means there is no where to emergency land). And here is where the plot starts to degenerate. So our big time crime boss Eddie Kim comes up with the idea that the best way to kill Sean is to put a crate of poisonous snakes (different species from around the world) onto the plane. They also spray all the leis that are given out to the passengers with snake mating pheromone to make the snakes more aggressive. Isn't there easier and more effective ways to kill someone? I guess we had to get the snakes on the plane somehow and that way is as good as any. The snakes are put into a box that doesn't pop open until the plane has reached a certain altitude and once the snakes are released mayhem ensues. And the movie becomes your typical creature feature with the snakes biting and killing the passengers. Will anyone survive? I guess you will have to watch the movie to find out.

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Before the mayhem ensues we are introduced to several of the passengers who will be a collection of bite victims for the film (just like any horror film you need a body count of people we know something about). This includes a famous rapper who is phobic of germs (Flex Alexander) and his two body guards (Kenan Thompson and Keith Dallas); two young boys traveling by themselves (Casey Dubois and Daniel Hogarth); a Paris Hilton-eske girl with her dog (Rachel Blanchard); a nasty Englishman (Gerard Plunkett); a couple returning from their honeymoon, the husband of this couple provides our afraid to fly passenger (Emily Holmes and Tygh Runyan); a mother with her baby (Elsa Pataky) plus the flight attendants which include the nice older attendant (Lin Shaye), the male "gay" attendant (Bruce James), the pretty blonde with day-glow lipstick (Sunny Mabrey) and then the down to earth, smart one that ends up helping Neville out, Claire (Julianna Margulies). We get to know a lot about some of these characters, but not many of them are likable enough that we care about them.

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The special effects were good, the snakes looked real except for the python that they threw in that they added artificial teeth to. There are only a couple of sequences where the snakes looked fake such as the afore mentioned python. I was really surprised at the quality of the CG. The plot is okay for this type of film. It is a decent creature feature. Biologically (I am a biologist after all), there are a few things wrong with this movie like the teeth on the python, but I won't bore you with those details.

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The script is often times funny with the snakes biting people in the most inconvenient places wearing out several "funny but aww man animal biting scenarios." We even get a nod to the mile high club. The dialogue is nothing to write home about lots of screaming and what are we going to do--there are snakes on the plane!

The acting is on par for each character. They all play their cookie cutter part well. We don't like the ones we are supposed to not like (the Paris Hilton girl, the nasty Englishman) and we feel for the ones we are supposed to like (cute young kids by themselves, the mother and child, the nice older flight attendant). The "gay" flight attendant is a great character (Bruce James) adding some flavor to this otherwise boring set of characters. Julianna Margulies does an okay job as Claire in the supportive heroine role trying to keep the passengers calm and alive. Samuel L Jackson, as the FBI agent Nelville Flynn, turns out the only really great performance. He brings all the attitude as he tries to take hold of this unusual situation.

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Overall for a creature feature it is not bad. It is everything it promises to be. The snakes look pretty real and the plot is not as bad as it could be. I wouldn't say I enjoyed the film, but it wasn't bad. If you are looking for a snake-biting thriller then this movie is defiantly for you.