Snakes On A Plane Review Country : USA Year: 2006 Genre: Action / Thriller Format: Cinema Running Time: 105 minutes Distributor: New Line Cinema A young man motor-crossing through the Hawaiian isles sees something he shouldn't have seen--now he's on a plane and protected by the FBI from everything except a toxic reptilian threat which their training scenarios never counted on.... Credits Directed by Daniel R. Ellis. Written by John Heffernan, Sebastian Gutierrez and David Dallesandro. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Nathan Phillips, Julianna Margulies, Rachel Blanchard, Flex Alexander, Sunny Mabrey, Bruce James, Lin Shaye, Todd Louiso and David Koechner. This could be the first instance of hype built upon the promise of a title alone, although sweetening the pot by announcing an inimicably beloved action star as the headliner was a savvy marketing device. Indeed, once the show-biz world, both online and offline, promised delivery of a high-altitude action thriller entitled Snakes On A Plane with Samuel L. Jackson as the lead, the rafters were literally hissing with electricity. With an e-buzz that ranged from enthusiastic to venomous, the flick managed to cement itself amongst the must-see pictures of summer 2006. And now that the serpent has been loosed upon screens the world over, how is the final product? Surprisingly entertaining. At the beginning of Snakes On A Plane, we are introduced to a character named Sean (Nathan Phillips), an unremarkable twenty-something surfer guy who is free-wheeling on his motorcycle on a Hawaiian island when he accidentally sees something he ought not to have seen: a gangland-style murder. Though he flees the scene, the crime lord (Byron Lawson) has seen him, too, and dispatches thugs to the shaken Sean's apartment to dispatch him. Luckily, FBI agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) shows up in time to shoot the would-be assassins and spirit Sean to safety. Once Sean agrees to testify against the crime lord, arrangements are made to fly them to Los Angeles along with Flynn's tight-assed partner Sanders (Mark Houghton). They're even disguising which flight they're taking, in case the bad guys get wind and try something nasty. Problem is, the bad guys have managed to cotton onto the decoy flight, and in the hopes of bringing it down mid-trip, insuring the deaths of all aboard including Sean, have loaded a large crate filled with deadly snakes collected from all over the world. Sound preposterous, no? On paper it may, but onscreen it all plays out rather seamlessly. Flynn and Sanders manage to secure the entire first class section for themselves and Sean, much to the chagrin of the flight attendants, who must inform the pissed-off first class passengers that they've been bumped to coach. But once the plane is safely airborne and above the Pacific, the small explosive device in the snake crate goes off, causing no damage to the aircraft but loosing the snakes within the baggage compartment. It's not long before they're finding their ways into the passenger quarters, and.... That's the set-up. And it works pretty well, despite the cries for suspension of disbelief in order here. While we're in the air, this flight is full of characters who overcome the bravado stereotype of action thrillers and ingratiate themselves to the viewers. The main one is Claire (Julianna Margulies), a flight attendant supposedly on her final trip as she is to transistion into a new career; rap singer Three G's (Flex Alexander) whose two bodyguards (Kenan Thompson and Keith Dallas) continually steal his thunder; veteran stewardess Grace (Lin Shaye), whose altruism rewards an otherwise unremarkable life; and Rick (David Koechner), the womanizing co-pilot who takes on a commanding responsibility as long as the snakebite venom coursing through his veins will allow him to do so. There is particular comic relief from the character Ken (Bruce James), a seemingly latent gay flight attendant who is all too willing to suck the venom from the bite in one male character's buttock ("Keep this man away from my ass!" yells the clearly heterosexual snakebite victim). A clever narrative punchline eventually turns this notion on its ear, needless to say. Meanwhile, the figuratively emasculated Sean, required to stay in his seat like a good boy, galvanizes himself into applaudable action and leads the survivors to further safety while Flynn has ventured below-deck into treacherous, serpent-infested territory, in order to repair some damaged electrical circuitry. It would be notably incomplete not to comment on the presentation of the serpents. A good bit of the snakeplay, I'm sorry to report, is some horridly rendered CGI. Not all of it, though. But too much of it to make this portion of the grading scale a positive attribute. Some sequences do involve real snakes (including a Burmese Python--daunting, except that the species is non-poisonous). Director David Ellis does track the undercompartment moves of such not-so-instantly-identifiable types as the Gaboon Viper, and I think I saw a couple of Green Mambas in one of the cockpit scenes. A few Cobras raise their hoods, but a big conundrum in the film (for a well-read serpent scholar like myself) is that many of the marauding reptiles look like Hollywood creations rather than existing snakes. And that's a problem, considering that the research is so damned easy these days. The script even brings in a reticent snake venom expert, played to the hilt by Todd Louiso (memorable as the demure albino record store clerk in High Fidelity, but nearly unrecognizable here), part of an onground response team directed by Flynn via cell phone. How all this gets sorted out is the movie's job, and I'm not going to spill it here. Suffice to say that this harkens back to some of the old Irwin Allen "disaster movies" of the 1970's, and pretty much hits all the marks. Its premise might be as hokey as Groundhog Day, and its bravura ad campaign might be just like the "Mr. Microphone" ads from twenty-five years ago. Nonetheless, Snakes On A Plane manages to entertain, even if it's on the level of a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese. It's not high cuisine, but it's damned tasty anyway. OFFICIAL SITE DISCUSS ON OUR FORUMS Review by Petch Lucas, for Pitofhorror.com