Its reputation has preceded it. Moviegoers all across the nation already know key faces, plot twists and bits of dialogue from a film set to open tomorrow. Of what soon to be classic movie do I speak? Let me give you a clue: We got motherfuckin’ snakes!
“Snakes on a Plane” has all the makings of a cult hit; for that matter, “Snakes” has all the makings of a hit, period.
The concept for this movie is deliciously ridiculous, and cold-stone frightening. If you thought a bunch of snakes were scary in “Anacondas,” now imagine twice as many snakes and less than 1 percent as much space. “Snakes on a Plane” is as much about claustrophobia as ophidiophobia.
Pre-released information about this film explains that an assassin has discharged the snakes on the plane, in order to exterminate the witness to a crime.
Per my knowledge of hired killing, I would assume this to be the absolute most inefficient way to kill a person. First, you have to round up enough snakes to cause a frantic panic; that task alone could take years, seeing as you can’t just go into Scamps and request 450 venomous serpents.
Furthermore, there is the issue of border security. Are we supposed to believe that an airport, now taking stringent measures against water bottles and hand lotion, is going to give the go-ahead to hundreds of deadly snakes?
I’m sure that these and other plot questions will be masterfully be answered when “Snakes on a Plane” is finally released. And it’s about time too, because in the true nature of a modern cult hit, advertising for this film has been out of control. Maybe it’s because of its simple yet descriptive title that everyone and their mother (well, every mother except mine, I guarantee) has heard the hype about Samuel L. Jackson and the snakes.
Once upon a time, in order for a movie to be considered a cult hit, it had to appeal to an underground audience; “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” for instance, was popular with late night sex fiends, otherwise known as teenagers. “Donnie Darko” had a peculiar allure that appealed to sci-fi fans, psychotics, and people opposed to the idea of suburbia.
So what cult audience does “Snakes on a Plane” reach out to? An audience that is fed up with both the cynics and the sentimentals in Hollywood. This is an audience that craves neither witty repartee nor tear jerking images, but rather the unembellished appeal of mother fucking snakes on a mother fucking plane.
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