Snakes on a Plane

Snakes on a Plane Date: na   —   DVD / VHS product page Rating:

I first heard about Snakes On A Plane about 10 months ago.  I read about it on Fark or something, and I was so amazed that it was actually going to happen that I had trouble believing it was real. 

But it was, and I began to tell people about it.  I very quickly discovered that even some of the biggest geeks I knew didn't know about this movie.  They didn't know that they had to change the title to "Flight 121" just to get actors to read the script.  They didn't know that Samuel L. Jackson threatened to leave the movie unless the title was changed back.  They didn't know that an internet fan club for the movie was already growing, or that the fans had demanded more violence, more sex and Samuel L. dropping the f-bomb...all of which were then added back to a movie that had been deliberately watered down to PG-13 in the first place.

SoaP may be the very first movie where a cult following actually helped to write the script and direct the action by populist demand.  And in spite of the nearly ubiquitous name-dropping from the likes of Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and others, the movie somehow manages to live up to the hype.

I could never even attempt to delve into this movie the way The Rob does in his review, but I will say the following: this movie surpassed all my expectations.  Even for a movie with an absurdly simple premise, it actually manages to be exciting, scary, sad and ridiculous all at once.  Sam Jackson is great as he almost always is, and the the no-names filled out the cast nicely.  Ed and I laughed, cried and made a lot of crass jokes, and we had a great time doing it despite the fact that the theater was rather empty.

I say this with all honesty: I haven't found a better way to blow $9 this summer.  Forget what those cynical, snobby tools that call themselves Onion reviewers tell you: Snakes On A Plane is everything it should be, and more.

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