Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianna Margulies, Nathan Phillips Director: David R. Ellis Category: IIB Snakes on a Plane, a piece of escapist entertainment directed by David R. Ellis (Cellular), is successful because it exploits two of our worst fears: disaster on a flight and the venomous reptile. Although the former is a common ploy in recent Hollywood films (the brilliant Red Eye and the mediocre Flight Plan), the latter has terrorised us since the dawn of mankind. After all, the snake made an evil appearance in the Bible to tempt Adam and Eve with the forbidden fruit. Since then, snakes have represented everything that is deadly - but sexy. Consider the snakes' first attack in the film: a couple is scoring some mile-high club points in the lavatory when a poisonous snake falls on them and delivers lightning-quick bites. The flight attendants overhear the couple's cries, but think they're just having fun. Subsequent deaths are much less sexy, but equally gruesome. The snakes have been hidden in a crate by crime boss Eddie Kim (Byron Lawson) in an attempt to kill an eye-witness, Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips), who is being escorted by FBI agent Nelville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) on the red-eye to Los Angeles. They're hyperactive and aggressive under the influence of pheromones. Their fangs sink into every imaginable body part of the passengers. Usually, it's a selfish businessman who suffers the most gruesome death in disaster flicks. In Snakes, he's the one who's swallowed whole by a giant python. With the pilot dead and the co-pilot hurt the rest of the film is about Flynn and the passengers trying to stop the snakes from entering the front of the aircraft. Plenty of thrills follow, although the movie's strength isn't the action as much as humour. Most of the dialogue is either cliched or so out of context that gruesome scenes come across as comedy, as Jackson delivers hackneyed lines in a serious and matter-of-fact tone - repeating his star-making feats in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown. The film is illogical and silly - but the fun always comes at the right time to leave us shocked, disgusted, amused or aroused. Snakes on a Plane is B-movie-making at its trashiest and very best. Snakes on a Plane opens today
