Post by Michael West on Aug 20, 2006 22:06:11 GMT -5
Directed by: David R. Ellis
Written by: John Heffernan and Sebastian Gutierrez (screenplay)
David Dalessandro and John Heffernan (story)
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianna Margulies, Nathan Phillips, Rachel Blanchard, Flex Alexander, and Kenan Thompson
Okay, I'm going to date myself here, but I'm old enough that I remember going to the Drive-in to see some of the Airport movies in the 1970s. There was the one (1975) where two planes collided in midair, and Charlton Heston had to bungee jump through a hole in the side of a 747 to try and land the plane. Then there was the one about the Concorde (1979), where someone on the plane had documents that would ruin a defense contractor, so the company tried to shoot the plane down with a missile, causing George Kennedy to have to try and land the plane. Writers John Heffernan and Sebastian Gutierrez follow the Airport formula so well that they could have named their film Airport 2006, but where's the fun in that?
And fun, dear readers, is what Snakes on a Plane is all about.
The always wonderful Samuel L. Jackson is FBI agent Nelville Flynn. It's Flynn's job to escort a murder witness, Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips), from Hawaii to L.A. so that he can testify against brutal crime boss Eddie Kim (Byron Lawson). Now how Flynn and Kim learn the identity of this witness is a mystery that will leave you scratching your head, but this isn't a movie that requires too much logical thought.
Case in point: the plan! To prevent Jones from testifying, Kim has Pacific Air Flight 121 sprayed with female snake pheromones, then has a time-release crate, filled with hundreds of exotic poisonous snakes, ready to open in mid-flight. When one of Kim's henchmen questions the plan, he yells: "Don't you think I've exhausted every other option?" Lets see...I know airport security is tight in our post 9/11 world, but I can think of 101 options that would have taken far less effort and proved much more effective.
Anyway, now you got your motherf**kin' snakes on your motherf**kin' plane, and it's up to Samuel L. Jackson to keep his witness, and the other passengers, alive until they can find a way to land.
John Heffernan and Sebastian Gutierrez's script is as high concept as they come. One might go so far as to say it is utterly brillant in its simplicity. But there are places where it drags like a snake's belly on the carpeted aisles. For one thing, it takes far too long for the snakes to attack. We use that time to get to know the parade of movie cliches as they board the plane. You have the married couple returning from their honeymoon, the Paris Hilton standin with the cute little dog, the horny couple (who might as well have targets painted on their skimpy clothes), and the stewardess on her last flight (Julianna Margulies). The time could better have been spent...oh, I don't know...perhaps creating a third act? As I said, an Airport movie is only concerned about one question: "Will they land?" Once that question is answered, the film is over. SoaP uses this same model.
Instead of Airport, the writers should have looked to the story structure of Speed for inspiration. In that movie, the central question of "Will they get off the bus before it blows?" is answered, but then we have a final showdown with the villian. There is no such closure here, and that's a shame. A final act with Flynn meeting Kim face to face might have provided some wonderful moments!
But Samuel L. Jackson takes the screenplay he was given and milks it for all it is worth. He gets to play the action hero, shoot things, blow stuff up, and say all the cool R-rated lines. But he also gets to have a few darkly humorous moments, as when he tries to describe the colors of a snake to an expert over the phone. In every scene, he seems to be having a wonderful time, and it shows.
Like Jackson, director David R. Ellis manages to have all the fun he can with the material, staging some nice snake attacks and building early suspense. When I saw trailer footage from the film, I was worried the slithering beasts would look like those poorly animated pythons that populate Saturday night Sci-Fi channel movies, but they actually look pretty realistic...and pretty scary. I literally jumped out of my seat at one point, and I'm sad to say that doesn't happen too often anymore.
Snakes on a Plane is a movie that knows its audience and tries to give them everything they could possibly want in an in-flight disaster/frightfest. You want sex in a bathroom? Check. Want to see the british guy get what's coming to him? Gotcha. Want to hear Samuel L. Jackson yelling curse words at killer snakes? Hell yeah! Oh, hey, you want to not only hear Cobra Starship's title song, but also watch the video during the closing credits? Wow...its like you can actually see into my brain!
Despite its flaws, I had a blast watching this film. Do I wish it had been more Speed and less Airport? Sure. But I went into the theater to see Snakes on a Plane, and I got everything the title promised and then some.
4 out of 5 stars.