Yes, I did it. Last night, I went to the 10pm screening of Snakes On A Plane. To my surprise, the theater wasn’t entirely sold out (to be fair, it was a massive AMC Theater in Times Square, and there were people in every row) — but we did have to wait in line, and there were people dressed up as pilots, people carrying rubber snakes, and TV cameras interviewing people and getting shots of the theater. So, after all the hoopla, what do I have to say? My friends, it was worth every penny.
The previews alone were worth at least 1/4 the admission. The very first preview was for another Samuel L. Jackson movie called — no joke — Black Snake Moan. THIS IS TRULY PURE MARKETING GENIUS AT WORK! The crowd went wild when we saw Samuel appear, and went even more wild when we saw the word “snake” in the title. Justin Timberlake is listed as being in the movie, but he wasn’t in the trailer (boo). Needless to say, the crowd got a little antsy, and during a preview for a new Denzel Washington movie (why is he always playing a cop?!), someone in the audience yelled out “this sucks!” to a roar of laughter. However, my favorite audience shout-out had to be right before it started rolling, when someone yelled “LET’S DO THIS!”
Oh yes, the audience participation was in its prime. During the opening credits, a real happy go lucky, sort of upbeat song plays and the entire audience started clapping along to the song! Of course, there was a wave of applause when the title credits came on the screen. I went in a bit afraid that there were going to be some real obnoxious assholes who wouldn’t shut up, but it was a lot of hissing (seriously), and whooping and clapping. Everytime Samuel killed a snake, kicked someone’s ass or said a killer line, there was screaming and applause — especially, of course, during the infamous “that’s it! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane” line, which was as amazing as promised. Some people even gave a brief standing ovation after that line.
As for the movie itself…
The beginning is hilarious to me, because the shot during the opening credits shows sunny beaches and the ocean, Hawaii, to be exact. I immediately started thinking, “we’ve been duped into the biggest marketing prank ever! I bet there are no snakes and no planes, and this is actually just some lame ass surfing movie, and all the stills were fake!” (This turned out not to be the case, of course, but if anyone’s looking for any ideas…) Much like how I felt about Sin City, the acting is absolutely atrocious in the beginning: to the point where my friends and I were thinking, “I don’t know if I can sit through 2 hours of this.” However, also like Sin City, the acting quickly improved.
Now, I love cheesy action movies (case in point: example one, example two), and was expecting this to be something along the same lines. So, I admit slight disappointment at the lack of knee-slapping jokes & puns (I was thinking Batman & Robin here, people). I also admit a bit of shock at just how… gorey the movie is. There are some seriously gruesome deaths. That said, it certainly keeps you on your toes, thanks to some twists and turns that I legitimately did not see coming. This is the not a film where you know who’s going to live and who’s going to die within the first few minutes, nor is it easy to predict how and when people are going to die. There were a couple anti-climactic moments (specifically the co-pilot story-line, and how they handle the hugefuckingpython), but the constant “what the fuck”-ness of the rest of it more than makes up for that… and so does the simple fact that it’s a movie about Samuel L. Jackson taking on a (motherfucking) plane full of (motherfucking) snakes. Also, an appearance from Todd Louiso (aka Dick in High Fidelity) as the snake expert? Brilliant!
Please leave comments about your thoughts & viewing experiences. I’m interested to see how everyone reacts!