Still Fun; Just Not As Wild As Promised

Read Time:5 Minute, 36 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Snakes On A Plane [Limited Edition]
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Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Year Released: 2006, Arrow Video 4K 2026
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director(s): David R. Ellis
Writer(s): John Heffernan, Sebastian Gutierrez, David Dalessandro
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianna Margulies, Nathan Phillips, Kenan Thompson, Rachel Blanchard, Lin Shaye
Where to Watch: available January 20, 2025, pre-order your copy here: www.arrowvideo.com, www.mvdshop.com, or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: “I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!” That line of dialogue, although not from the original screenplay, may indeed be more famous than the film itself. SNAKES ON A PLANE exists in a very specific cultural moment; it’s less a movie than a reaction, a studio scrambling to harness lightning in a bottle after the internet decided the title alone was enough to justify the experience. That context matters because it explains both why the film works at all and why it never fully becomes the unhinged cult object people remember it as. The movie knows what audiences want; the problem is that it rarely goes far enough to give it to them truly.

At its core, SNAKES ON A PLANE is a high-concept creature feature filtered through a mid-2000s disaster movie template. The setup is simple, almost to the point of parody, and that’s its greatest asset. There’s no pretense of depth, no ambition beyond survival and extravaganza. In theory, that should free the film to lean hard into excess. In practice, it keeps pulling its punches, as if terrified of committing to the trashy chaos its reputation promises.

Samuel L. Jackson is the anchor, and without him, this movie collapses instantly. He plays Neville Flynn with a straight-faced authority that sells the nonsense by refusing to acknowledge it. Jackson understands something crucial; if everyone plays this like a joke, the whole thing dies. His performance isn’t ironic; it’s professional, and that seriousness is what allows the film’s absurdity to function at all. When he delivers the now-infamous line, it doesn’t land because it’s clever or deep; it lands because he commits to it like a man genuinely at the end of his rope. That level of conviction carries large stretches of the movie.

Around him, the supporting cast feels like a checklist of disaster movie archetypes. Julianna Margulies brings competence and calm, grounding the cockpit sequences in something resembling plausibility. Nathan Phillips is serviceable as the witness, though the script never quite gives him enough personality to justify his importance. Kenan Thompson provides comic relief that occasionally works but also feels like it wandered in from a different movie. Lin Shaye and several others exist almost entirely to be remembered as “that person who got bit,” which is fine for this kind of film, but also speaks to how thinly drawn most of the characters are.

The biggest issue with SNAKES ON A PLANE is pacing, not in terms of speed but escalation. The movie takes too long to unleash its premise, and once it does, it rarely tops its own ideas. The early snake attacks are effective because they’re unexpected and mean-spirited; later sequences start to blur together, relying on repetition instead of ingenuity. For a film built around chaos, it’s surprisingly structured, almost cautious, as if it’s afraid the audience might tune out if things get too ridiculous.

The blend of practical scenes and early CGI is uneven at best, and while some effects still hold up in quick cuts or dim lighting, others pull you out of the moment immediately. To the movie’s credit, it often leans into sound design to sell danger rather than lingering on digital imagery, but the limitations are still obvious. This isn’t a deal-breaker; camp can survive the bad effects. The problem is that the film doesn’t always lean far enough into camp to make those flaws feel intentional.

Tonally, the film sits in an awkward middle ground. It’s self-aware, but not reckless. It’s silly, but not fearless. You can feel the tension between what the filmmakers wanted to do and what the studio would allow. There are moments when the movie flirted with going completely off the rails, then pulled back into familiar action-thriller territory. That restraint keeps it accessible, but it also keeps it from being truly memorable beyond its title and one line of dialogue.

Viewed now, SNAKES ON A PLANE feels like a fascinating artifact of early internet culture colliding with Hollywood. It’s entertaining enough, and in short bursts, it’s genuinely fun. But it also represents a missed opportunity: a movie that knew exactly what people wanted, then delivered a toned-down version. That’s why it lands in the middle. It’s not bad, it’s not great, and it’s certainly not boring. It’s a film that survives on personality, timing, and memory more than execution.

SNAKES ON A PLANE earns its place as a cult curiosity rather than a cult masterpiece. It’s a good time, especially in the right environment, but it never becomes the gloriously unhinged disaster it pretends to be. The snakes show up, Samuel L. Jackson does his job, and everyone walks away satisfied enough. Just don’t expect the madness to keep escalating once the doors close.

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[photo courtesy of ARROW VIDEO, MVD ENTERTAINMENT]

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