THE SYNOPSIS Hawaii. After witnessing crime boss Chen Leong murder a man who was in the Witness Protection Plan, slacker-type Sean Jones (Phillips) is placed under the care and protection of non-nonsense FBI Agent Neville Flynn (Jackson). Sean is to be transported to the Mainland as a federal witness on a commercial airliner with Flynn and his partner John Sanders (Houghton) in tow. But that Chen is crafty; some of his airport connections load several crates onboard Pacific Air Flight 121... Hours later, over the vast Pacific Ocean, the crates electronically-open and hundreds of snakes slither out! Before you know it, they’re everywhere! First to get bitten are a hot, young couple doing the nasty in the restroom. Soon, many passengers, crew, the pilot and Sanders are dead. Flynn, with the help of head flight attendant Claire Miller (Margulies), rallies the survivors in order to defend themselves from the army of serpents until they can land the plane. Through constant communication with the FBI in California, headed by Flynn’s colleague Agent Hank Harris (Cannavale), our intrepid protagonists are able to evade and destroy many of the snakes. Harris has hooked up with eccentric snake expert Dr. Steven Price (Louiso)--who sets out to create many, many serums for any survivors who walk off that plane...if it ever lands that is. Oh yes, since the pilots are dead, it’s up to one of the passengers to land it. But at least it sure is sunny in Southern California. Especially when all of the snakes have been neutralized. THE CRITIQUE SNAKES ON A PLANE will go down in cinematic history as a B-movie that was hyped so much via the internet and advanced word-of-mouth that the movie has already reached cult status. It also has the distinction of being the first movie in recent history that was shot for a PG-13 rating but then re-shot for a stronger R-rating (at the behest of the studio brass no less!) Too bad that the movie tanked at the box office upon its release! Still, the flick is a hoot--and shall slither into the black through ancillary outlets (foreign markets DVD, cable, TV, etc.) and still end up playing the midnight-movie circuit for years to come. Just watch Samuel L.’s campy performance and you’ll see why! I love Samuel L. Jackson. He is truly a chameleonic actor who takes on all roles (especially this one--based on the title alone). Here, he’s cool SLJ...similar to the role he played in 2000’s Shaft remake. The snakes and the rest of the cast can’t begin to match it. SNAKES ON A PLANE is based on a decade-old script called Venom (by some guy named David Dallesandro) and was eventually re-written with a higher snake count and greater thrills & chills by New Line employee John Heffernan & veteran scribe Sebastian Gutierrez (2007 The Eye/The Big Bounce/Gothika). What can I say about the script? It’s silly, illogical and downright unrealistic. Also add a healthy dose of the usual airplane/disaster movie clichés--the pilots are dead! No air conditioning. The retiring stewardess dies! The nasty man gets his! And so on... But the one thing the scripting isn’t is boring. SNAKES ON A PLANE moves right along. And I even jumped out of my seat a few times in the interim! So does the effortless direction by genre veteran David R. Ellis (2007’s Asylum/Cellular/Final Destination 2)--who rose up through the ranks as a child actor, a stuntman and then assistant director gigs. Replacing original director Ronny Yu (Jet Li’s Fearless/Freddy Vs. Jason), Ellis keeps it going--no matter how preposterous the gimmick is--and gets some campy performances out of his cast (more on that later). The cramped, atmospheric, widescreen-lensing is courtesy of veteran genre cinematographer Adam Greenberg (Collateral Damage/Terminator 2: Judgement Day/The Terminator). Kudos to him and his crew for creating a claustrophobic environment where action must ensue. Plane movies are often very hard to light and lens, but the DP pulls it off handsomely. Other tech credits (editing, production design, SFX/VFX) are solid. The production featured over 400 real snakes (!) in addition to a plethora of CGI-created serpents. That’s a lot of slipping-and-sliding! THE BOTTOM LINE Plenty of hype, plenty of thrills, plenty of snakes, plenty of Mr. Samuel L.! Cheesy B-movie is a barrel of gory fun--and should be treated as such. No deep-thinking metaphors abound here! Just snakes...plenty of slimy, nasty, psychotic, muthaf%#kin snakes!! CAST: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianne Margulies, Nathan Phillips, Bobby Cannavale, Todd Louiso, Rachel Blanchard, Flex Alexander, Kenan Thompson, Keith (Blackman) Dallas, Mark Houghton & David Koechner CREDITS: Director: David R. Ellis; Screenwriters: John Heffernan & Sebastian Gutierrez, based on a story by: David Dalessandro and John Heffernan; Producers: Gary Levinsohn, Don Granger & Craig Berenson; Director of Photography: Adam Greenberg; Production Designer: Jaymes Hinkle; Editor: Howard E. Smith; Costume Designer: Karen Matthews; Music: Trevor Rabin AC/GV 2006 105m ENGLISH N/SL