Snakes on a Plane
Well, let's see, what's the absolute laziest way I could start a review of this film? How 'bout the same damn way everybody starts their review, by saying this movie couldn't possibly live up to all the hype. Well, no, actually this film is much, much better than I was expecting it to be. I went in anticipating a prefab self-mocking bit of imminently disposable pop culture, and found instead quite the entertaining little motion picture.
While 'Snakes' does of course posses a sly sense of humor, it never uses winking irony as an excuse for outright laziness. More akin to cheesy 70's disaster flicks than some 3rd generation 'Scream' knockoff, the flick makes an honest stab at creating tension. This it does remarkably well, and rather consistently. It's remarkably refreshing to see some intelligent writing in what could have been a wholly vapid exercise. While some characters are stock one-dimensional caricatures whose doom can clearly be foreseen by all, others that you might anticipate as being reptile fodder (or at the very best, comic relief) actually develop quite nicely.
My only real complaint (besides the sometimes paint-by-numbers characterization) is that some of the snakes are realized with painfully obvious cgi. However in a low-budget flick (especially one that worked out so well) this is forgivable. Far from the time waster so many envisioned, 'Snakes on a Plane' is actually worth watching. But hell, if you're on this website then you've probably already seen it.
7.5