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| Images courtesy of Arrow Video |
Canned camp is tricky business, especially when it is willed
into existence by viral internet memes.
Such was the case back in 2006 with Final Destination 2 director
David R. Ellis’ tongue-in-cheek action-horror-comedy Snakes on a Plane,
a movie that was funnier as an in-joke among ‘YTMND’ fans than as a finished
product. For months, what was planned as
a PG-13 creature feature with Samuel L. Jackson battling an armada of venomous snakes
on a commercial aircraft with the actor presumably dropping hilarious
one-liners had amassed into a counter-cultural phenomenon. In maybe the first example of internet fandom
influencing the reshaping of a film, New Line Cinema listened to the memes and
decided to bump it up to an R rated gore and nudity filled camp fest including
roughly five days of additional reshoots.
Fans also somehow figured out a way to get Samuel L. Jackson to say
particular lines onscreen, particularly involving having ‘had it with motherf***ing
snakes on this motherf***ing plane’. On
paper and online its the funniest film ever made. Onscreen the film is middling and average
with flat cartoonish CGI and maybe the most bored Samuel L. Jackson has been
onscreen since playing Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequels.
The plot is simple enough: crime lord Eddie Kim (Byron
Lawson) committed a murder which was witnessed by Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips)
and FBI Agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) is tasked with escorting the
witness to Los Angeles where he will testify against Kim. To cover his tracks, Kim orders a crate chock
full of venomous snakes to be placed in the cargo hold with the intention of
the snakes incensed and aggravated by special pheromone going on the offensive
with the passengers and crew before they can reach Los Angeles. Soon after the flight attendants, passengers
and the captain’s co-pilot Rick (David Koechner in the second Arrow title of
the week alongside Cheap Thrills) are besieged by snakes, leaving room
for many sight gags and heartfelt rescues including one where Lin Shaye from A
Nightmare on Elm Street sacrifices herself to rescue children stuck in the
back of the plane. Meanwhile back on the
ground, Special Agent Hank Harris (a young Bobby Cannavale) picks up on the
scenario and reaches out to a snake venom expert to try and figure out a way to
administer antidotes to the passengers and land the plane with snakes still
slithering about the corridors.
Featuring scope widescreen cinematography by Terminator 2:
Judgment Day cinematographer Adam Greenberg in his final work as a
cameraman, a serviceable action-thriller score by Armageddon composer
Trevor Rabin and cherry topped with an original song Snakes on a Plane
(Bring It) by Cobra Starship which became a decently sized radio hit, Snakes
on a Plane is a strange bird of a film.
In theory it should be a beer and pizza film but even with the R rating
it feels forced if not a little corporatist.
Despite not liking the film then or now, Arrow Video’s disc is nice with
an overqualified 4K transfer and 5.1 surround sound. Most of the extras have been ported over from
the archival 2009 Warner Brothers Blu-ray disc but some new retrospective
documentaries have been assembled also including one about the movie tie-in
novelization. Samuel L. Jackson (I think?)
is in on the joke but upon a rewatch it barely mustered more than a
snicker. Still, nothing could’ve
prepared us for the Asylum Entertainment knockoff camp empire that would emerge
in the wake of Snakes on a Plane giving rise to such equally doddering and
lame canned camp as Sharknado.
If you’re one of the original ‘lol internetz’ cronies that
forced this meme into a movie, you probably got some minor satisfactory high
out of that back then and loyally bought the Blu-ray disc. As for the rest of us still not completely
sure what to make of this one, it is indeed curious this came out three years
after New Line Cinema’s very own Freddy vs. Jason which should be a case
study in how to pull off canned camp. Usually
accidental and spontaneous, no one ever truly sets out to make camp unless you’re
Lloyd Kaufman and the appeal of the beer-and-pizza film typically involves
miscalculations spilling over onscreen in all their wonderous ingloriousness. Trying to do it on purpose usually falls flat
but sometimes it works. In any event,
Arrow Video’s disc won’t disappoint fans but the rest of us will probably keep
moving on as we leave this lame weak sauce “hilarious” cheeseball of a film on
the shelf. Who knows, maybe in the near
future it’ll make a good coaster?
--Andrew Kotwicki
