C'mon you know you want to see it. A prime example of truth in advertising, Snakes On A Plane is just a glorified direct-to-video movie that somehow slithered its way into theatres. And bless New Line Cinema for doing so.

Building up hype over the internet months and months before it was to be released, Snakes is the kind of movie you just don't see at your local multi-plex anymore. It's cheesy, it's dumb, and it's the type of film you'd see at a drive-in paired on a double bill with the latest low-brow Roger Corman production. The only difference here is they managed to get bona-fide actor Samuel L. Jackson to star - and he's just endeared himself to me more by doing so as he seems to shift between serious and fare like this not caring much about his reputation and seemingly picking movies if they look like they'd be fun to act in.

Jackson plays FBI agent Neville Flynn who is given the task of transporting a murder witness from Hawaii to Los Angeles in order for him to testify against one of the meanest and malicious mobsters on the island. Too bad for them, and all the other passengers, then when it turns out said mobster has snuck a crate load of various snakes (most of them poisonous) on board which are due to be released once a timer goes off and will be drawn to the pheromones they've sprayed on the leis most of the passengers are wearing.

Once the plane is over the ocean is where the fun really begins as the snakes get loose, start attacking people in creative ways (the first victim is bitten on the naked nipple, another takes air sickness to an all new level) while Jackson and the crew members attempt to fight off the slithering beasts and keep the travelers (most of them pleasing plays on the typical clichés that littered the airline disaster movies of the late 70's) from either being bitten by snakes or the plane just crashing into the ground.

If you go into this with a serious mindset, or you don't like crappy B-movies, you won't like this. The makers don't take it seriously and neither should you. This is not the type of movie you'll want to see for suspense and/or smart plotting - and if you're expecting either I think you need to see a movie that's "not" titled Snakes On A Plane because there's no more obvious hints at what type of movie it is than the title (Jackson even was refusing to be in it if they changed it to Pacific Air Flight 121 like New Line was planning to).

So far this year I haven't had nearly as much fun in a darkened theatre as I did with Snakes. I came into it expecting a none-to-serious monster movie and this delivered in spades. If you're into this type of thing I urge you to just sit back, enjoy the tongue-in-cheek humour, fun death scenes, and dopey CGI snakes - plus Sammy Jackson acting all macho before uttering that immortal line, "Get these MF'ing snakes....". You won't regret it. (Chris Hartley, 9/3/06)

Directed By: David R. Ellis.
Written By: John Heffernan, Sebastian Gutierrez.

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianna Margulies, Nathan Phillips, Rachel Blanchard.