Serpentes a Bordo

"Snakes on a Plane" is a movie that practically reviews itself. The concept is the pitch, and the pitch is the movie. Snakes, a plane, and Samuel L. Jackson. Simple as that. The problem? The execution doesnt live up to the hype.

The film is far too restrained. It doesnt lean into its campy premise enough to be hilarious, nor does it crank up the tension to become a proper thriller. The movie sticks to a pretty safe formula. Predictable kills, mediocre effects, and a thunderstorm because of course theres a thunderstorm.

"Snakes on a Plane" is definitely best enjoyed in a packed theater, watching it solo on the couch? Not the same vibe.

Campy / B movies have to do something right to make the leap from a trashy one-time-watch to a cult classic. Snakes on a Plane delivers -- it's actually pretty good.

If you're willing to watch it through a certain lens; with the knowledge that you're watching a truly satirical movie, it's very entertaining. Samuel L Jackson's charismatic performance is what makes this movie great.

The marketing behind this movie is truly unique in that it is exactly what it says it is and almost nothing else! Silly but fun watch!

Anyone who's seen this movie and given it a 10 may feel good about themselves for promoting what obviously started as an underground film, but an honest look will show you that this movie is grossly overrated. Before I get labeled as someone who "just doesn't get it" concerning this movie, I'd like to explain what I expected: a movie with everything over-the-top: Violence, cursing, and (most importantly) Samuel L. Jackson. What I got was glimpses of the movie I expected interspersed with, unfortunately, what looked like real attempts at plot and character development. Especially painful was watching the rap star's transformation from good guy to bad and back to good again. Pointless, it added nothing to the film. What hurt the most, though, was a lack of Mr. Jackson. He was in the movie, but other than the one expected line towards the end of the film, there really wasn't anything else that was quotable in there. I thought he'd be cursing and killing snakes left and right, but by the time he finally said his "mother *beep* snakes" line, the audience's cheering where I watched it was half-hearted as though to say "well, that was good, but where were all the other parts I came here to cheer for?" Most of the "extreme" scenes felt forced (just think about the line from the guy who pees on the snake), while all it would have taken to make this movie awesome was to not hold back or strive for "acting" or "plot". I gave the movie a 5 because, come on, Sam Jackson is the man and, admittedly, there were some pretty damn funny parts... but I really wanted to rate this higher. The idea was great, but I didn't feel it came close to the hype. Instead, I left feeling like I'd just watched all the deleted scenes of a great movie that just didn't measure up to the finished product.

Samuel L. holds it together, but this film just isn't bad enough for the type of film it's been billed as. With all the promotional hype, I really expected something more. Where is the trenchant dialogue of a REALLY bad film? Sigh. It made me long for campy Killer Tomatoes, night clubbing Mushroom People, and the warm comfort of bad dialogue a la Buckaroo Banzai. I'm sure that the cast tried mightily, but in the end, it's just a semi-bad film, which is, of course, the kiss of death. Destined to be a lukewarm cult film for teens, about the best we can say is that Samuel L. is The Man for insisting that the film keep it's original working title of "Snakes on a Plane". One thing of note to parents- children may have been lured to the film because of all the promotional efforts and the film was originally rated PG-13. Additional footage took it to R and it contains scenes that are too strong for most pre-teen and younger teen children.

A lot of people on IMDb have given Snakes on a Plane a 10/10 rating and left comments like "omg this is best movie ever lol." Unfortunately, most of these people had come to this conclusion before seeing the movie, and are still high on the Internet hype that built the movie up to be something it's not.

I guess there's no real point to writing a review of Snakes On A Plane. With a title like that, you've already made up your mind about if you want to see it. But keep this in mind...

Snakes On A Plane isn't a comedy movie. It isn't a horribly cheesy or bad (intentionally or not) movie, either, or one that's "so bad it's good," which is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot in SOAP discussions. Also, the movie's not all about Samuel L. Jackson being a badass or swearing a lot, although it happens. Snakes On A Plane is a entertaining mid-grade thriller movie that pretty much delivers what you'd expect from a Hollywood movie about snakes on an airplane. No more, no less.

Don't see this movie if you're expecting to constantly laugh at Samuel L. Jackson showing off how cool he is. There are plenty of moments where Sam kicks ass and gives some great one-liners and does amusing things, but he is offscreen just as often as he is on it.

Snakes On A Plane isn't the best movie of the year. It's not the funniest movie of the year or the scariest, but it is a good movie if you're looking for mindless fun involving a lot of snakes on an airplane, some gratuitous gore and nudity, and a few great Samuel L. Jackson moments, check it out.