SNAKES ON A PLANE is something different: a cheesy B-movie hyped beyond belief and championed as one of the best so-bad-it's-good films of all time. Now, I've seen plenty of B-movies, some involving snakes, many involving other types of bugs and creatures, and I have to say that this is a fairly typical example of the genre. It's not particularly bad, it's not particularly great, but it has pace and drive that compensates for the dumb script and the focus on inanity throughout. Sure it's a big, bloated, clichéd mess of a B-movie but it's worth a look for fans of the genre who don't expect too much from it.

Probably the most enjoyable part of the film for me was the boarding section, in which we witness all of the clichéd passengers who'll be on the plane. It's as if the cameraman has a clipboard and is ticking off each cliché as they arrive: stuffy British businessman (check),mother and baby (check),kids (check),pretty blonde with cute dog (check),black rapper with hulking dumb bodyguards (check),kick-ass cop (check),resourceful stewardess (check),gay steward (check),blonde bimbo and boyfriend (check). The list is endless and, obviously, most of the fun here derives from working out who's going to bite it – or get bitten, in this case.

If you've seen one B-movie like this, you've seen them all. This would have been forgotten instantly as a back-shelf straight-to-DVD title were it not for Samuel L. Jackson, who is admittedly good as the tough cop. Sure, he's sleepwalking through the role, but he's having a ball. Sadly none of the other actors or actresses here can match the big man, especially not Nathan Phillips (so good in WOLF CREEK) and the almost unrecognisable Julianna Margulies, who seems to have had a ton of plastic surgery since her E.R. days. The special effects are pretty awful, with the CGI looking like CGI throughout, but the action scenes are quite competently staged. The film also scores points for the re-shoot which saw an extra handful of adult scenes added in to boost the rating, these include swearing, nudity, and some nice bloody effects that keep things moving along. It's dumb, cheesy and annoyingly aimed at the teenage market again, like THE MARINE, but SNAKES ON PLANE is okay. I won't be coming back to it, but I had a good time the once.

Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips) witnesses the murder of a prosecutor by the gangster Eddie Kim in the Hawaiian jungle. The gang is after him but FBI agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) rescues him. They go on the red eye to LA for Sean to testify against Eddie Kim. Claire Miller (Julianna Margulies) and Tiffany (Sunny Mabrey) are the flight attendants. They and the rest of the passengers have to battle countless deadly snakes that are unleashed by the gangsters.

The title says it all and the movie delivers exactly that. It's fun. It's stupid. It's not high minded. I got what I expected and what I wanted. SLJ does this in his sleep. The lead guy could be better but that's a small complaint. The snakes do actually scare. B-movies don't get a lot better than this.

I guess I can understand that there are simply things that people enjoy and gravitate toward. We eat hamburgers piled with three kinds of cheese, onion rings, bacon, and grease flowing out the sides. This is personal choice. But it ain't good for us. If it were 1955, we could understand someone making a movie for a couple thousand bucks with virtually no plot and a bunch of inept actors. When the result was held to the fire we'd say, "What did you expect?" What we have here is a movie that is just plain stupid. The events leading to the snakes escaping and killing people on the plane are ludicrous. So why would there be a positive review. For the aforementioned reasons and the fact that the TV ads showed all that was in the movie---nothing worth watching. I saw Samuel Jackson yelling and that was the movie. Please don't bother with this. I already sacrificed two hours. I did it for you.