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Snakes on a Plane
New Line Cinema


7.8

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 346 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for language, a scene of sexuality and drug use, and intense sequences of terror and violence

Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Byron Lawson, Nathan Phillips, Julianna Margulies, Bobby Cannavale, and Gerard Plunkett

An airborne thriller about a ruthless assassin who unleashes a crate full on lethal snakes onto a packed passenger jet over the Pacific Ocean.

GENRE(S):	Action \| Horror \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	John Heffernan (also story) Sebastian Gutierrez David Dalessandro (story)
DIRECTED BY:	David R. Ellis
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 2, 2007 Theatrical: August 18, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	105 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Snakes was the most exuberantly trashy delight of this summer movie season or last.

Premiere Jessica Letkemann

Why is this movie so watchable? Four simple reasons. It's truly funny. It's truly scary. It's truly gruesome. And Samuel L. Jackson is the cool head who prevails (“You stick with me, you live”).

Boston Globe Ty Burr

A movie called Snakes on a Plane had better be one of two things: So bad it's good or so good it's great. Darned if it isn't a little bit of both.

New York Post Kyle Smith

The film failed to be frightening, suspenseful or dramatic but accidentally succeeded in being absolutely hilarious.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Looming large over all this is Jackson, who glowers and growls and acts the hero better than any actor out there.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

If you can find a better time at the movies this year than this wild comic thriller, let me in on it.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Hilariously funny, full of fang-popping scares, and guaranteed to increase travel by train.

Dallas Observer Jim Ridley

There's something almost refreshingly venal about a movie with no purpose other than to meet intentions this cheesy.

Slate Dana Stevens

Who knows whether Snakes will have--forgive me--legs, but it's more than awesome enough to assure opening-weekend euphoria.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

This is a coolly efficient, tongue-in-cheek horror-comedy.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

What they give us is the chance to win, not with righteous morality, but with an old-fashioned swagger that says, much like the film itself, Hey, we may be stupid, but we rock.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

To be sure, Snakes on a Plane is going to inspire some highly readable graduate-school film theses. You may even want to re-enroll to pen one yourself.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

There is also a capable, wisecracking stewardess (Julianna Margulies) and, what a surprise, a steward who appears to be doing a Paul Lynde impersonation.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

To an extent, Snakes on a Plane reminds me of "Eight Legged Freaks." It has the same kind of off-the-wall, don't-take-it-seriously comedic horror sensibility.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Cheesy, campy B-movie fun, thanks mostly to the cadre of cobras and their ilk and also to Jackson (probably the only actor alive who could pull off this save-the-day bad ass movie role).

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

1. It has the potential to supplant "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" as the greatest audience participation movie of all time. 2. It is, simultaneously, one of the worst and best movies I’ve ever seen.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

While Snakes on a Plane barely stands up as a movie, it definitely qualifies as an event.

Variety Justin Chang

Snakes on a Plane is exactly the sort of tasteless, utterly depraved, no-nonsense sluts-and-guts extravaganza it was meant to be.

Empire Kim Newman

It’s the sort of picture you'll either queue all night in the rain to see twelve times or avoid like a Wayans Brothers Retrospective for the rest of life.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

More potent than anything in Snakes on a Plane is the fantasy offscreen: that if enough people talk up their desire to see this film and, at the same time, take an overt delight in what an unabashed piece of junk it is, they will fuse with the hype, with the movie's mystique. They will not just watch Snakes on a Plane; they will own it.

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

This hotly anticipated film delivers on the premise of its celebrated title. But it offers little more in terms of suspense, originality or enjoyment. Mostly, it lays there on the screen like a big lazy boa.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The plot is ridiculous and the characters are cardboard, but none of that really matters once the snakes get into the cabin and start zapping people, the very definition of entertainment.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

The result is not quite a horror movie (too cheerful and can-do) or a thriller (too cheerful and stupid), nor does it parody itself or take itself seriously, thereby canceling out the camp factor. It's more like an improv sketch at 30,000 feet.

The New Yorker David Denby

The audience decided to sell Snakes to itself, and that became the event--the actual movie could never have been more than another exploitation picture.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Snakes on a Plane represents a fairly craven mixture of deliberate cheese and inadvertent lameness, plus fangs.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Nothing at all special. It's one more cheesy, broadly played, poorly paced, instantly forgettable August action movie.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The whole enterprise has the sweaty sheen that comes from trying too hard to be cool.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The movie's highest level of artistic expression was the ingenious Internet campaign that catapulted it to culture phenom months before it even opened. The thing itself turns out to be pretty much an afterthought, cheesy and not very well worked out.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Neither as good nor as bad as you'd hoped it would be: It's just a mediocre exploitation picture with an inspired premise (succinctly spelled out by its title), loads of gratuitous gore, a dash of equally gratuitous nudity and enough inanities to make you wonder if Ed Wood rose from the grave to serve as a creative consultant on the project.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

It's not so bad that it's good. It's so bland that it's boring. Not even worth a hissss.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Not since Pet Rocks riveted the nation have so many gotten so excited over so little.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 346 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Aaron gave it a0:
How can you even put snakes on a plane without security even noticing! this movie sucks big time!

AJ M. gave it a9:
A true popcorn flick. Sometimes it's pretty hilarious (intentionally, even); it's got moments of suspense that work admirably well; Sam Jackson is THE MAN. All of that sounds like a guaranteed winner to me. I honestly don't get how people could not get this (unless, of course, they hate snakes, planes, or guilty pleasure horror movies), but realistically it's about as critic proof as anything I've ever seen. Bottom line: it's just supposed to be FUN, so have some.

Mike A. gave it a7:
Funny movie, but cheezy at the same time.

Reid F. gave it a7:
This fits under the heading of “Guilty Pleasure,” and I realize that for a movie like this to work, it can’t take itself too seriously. It succeeded in being just what it was supposed to be…a camp, horror romp about vicious, venomous snakes on the loose on a passenger-filled plane.

Parker gave it a10:
Watching this movie in theaters on opening night is unlike any experience I've ever had in my life. It was SOOOOOO much fun. Seriously, this film means a lot to me. 10/10

GL C. gave it a7:
C'mon, it's Snizzakes on a Pizzay, damnit! That said, I remember seeing this. Not bad for a trashy piece o'crap action film, especially considering the pathetic plot.

Colby C gave it a2:
If the internet didn't exist, this movie would be: Snakes on a Plane, an Alan Smithee film. Not campy enough to be fun, too boring to be scary.

Snakes on a Plane New Line Cinema

Snakes on a Plane
New Line Cinema