I am disappointed in this reviewer and think maybe a career change should be in mind. Every critic who has reviewed this film including Stephanie Zacharek (at one point), this film is quite simply a load of fun, its really cheesy and its not high budget and it doesn't take itself seriously, you just have to look at the inclusion of Kenan landing the plane to see this. Not to mention Jackson fans will and certainly did (in the cinema I was in) have a riot chanting such things as you "fucking tell 'em Samuel" and then you turn round and complain that its too cheesy for your liking (a point which you earlier described as being a positive) and didn't live up to the hype. The hype?! what kind of hype can there actually be from a film titled "snakes on a plane" I actually went in there expecting to see a terrible film so did everyone and in a way it was but it was terrible in such a good way. I am sorry to bad mouth this critic since he obviously knows what he talking about but I think today your being a bully! I am a little dissapointed that you picked out the right points and then rather pompously contradicted yourself, tut tut..

Contrary to an earlier comment, most of the people here who didn't like it have seen it. They say so in their posts. This isn't a schlock movie or a drive-in movie. It's a "schlock" movie. It's an "drive-in" movie. It knows it's working in quotation marks, but it isn't willing to actually parody itself. It's a hustle, and I don't know why people are so eager to be hustled.

The audience I saw it with was hissing before the movie, hissing during the movie before the snakes came on. They chanted Jackson's Big Line with him. Yet, as far as I could tell, they weren't repeat viewers. It's the opposite of an old William Castle or Roger Corman movie, because it's too self-consciously arch. (The only times Corman did that were with his two comedies, A Bucket of Blood, and The Little Shop of Horrors, both of which were genuine satires). It isn't trashy, it's "trashy." The action sequences aren't exciting. The jokes are only moderately funny. It's pretty much a waste of time.

I LOVED IT!!!!!

It was everything I expected and better---and one MUST see in a packed out theater. I saw it near NY Penn Station, and eavesdropping on my fellow viewers revealed, "That was a really, really good time!" in however many language variations you can imagine. BTW: why has NO ONE mentioned those BRILLIANT promo posters (South Pacific Airlines safety instruction cards, containing safety tips for passengers for when there are snakes on a plane).

There were, indeed, snakes on that plane, and it was a fun movie to watch.

Which is not to say I'll see it twice in the theater, and I did go to a matinee, but the audience very much enjoyed it (and laughed at it when it was absurd, and cheered The Line).

It's definitely going to show up in my DVD collection, though!

I DIDN'T...MAKE HIM....FOR YOU!!!!!!

Maybe it's time Salon hired Joe Bob Briggs.

I don't dislike Stephanie Zacharek, but this is a hell of an idea.

So, the movie critic who walked out of "Amityville Horror" because it was too scary (and because she couldn't handle seeing Van Wilder ice a yappy dog on film) is now spoiling very anticipated movies on opening day? Maybe Salon can finally fire Sackalick now that she's definitively proven herself to be one of the shittiest movie critics around.

Most anticipated?

By whom?

Most people were only waiting for it to come out so they'd be proven correct in their derision.

"All it had to do is live up to its name," Stephanie Zacharek says.

Does this mean she wanted MORE snakes? I lost count at around the 100th snake.

Does she mean the movie ought to have been stupider and campier? I am not sure how that could have been achieved.

I don't think Zacharek knows what she wanted -- something more dumb or more clever. Maybe it's time Salon hired Joe Bob Briggs.

"Snakes on a Plane" could have been great, good-bad fun. All it had to do was live up to its name.

Am I the only person that sees something wrong with this line from the review? There were motherfuckin' snakes on the motherfuckin' plane. How did it NOT live up to it's name!?

I don't think you understand why it got popular in the first place. As a nerd back in 03 or so, I remember reading an IMBD page for the in-production movie Snakes on a Plane. The page had very little information on it, except for the plot - There were snakes on a plane. I first thought it was just a joke that some other nerd put into the database and expected it to be removed. It never was. That's when it struck me that someone was actually stupid enough to name a movie about snakes on a plane, Snakes on a Plane. Obviously, the word got around to other people and SoaP became a 'meme' (funny internet phenomena), uhe main reason why it was popular. Not because the idea was good. Not because it promised good acting. Because someone was so stupid enough to make a movie about terrorist snakes on a plane.

That's what makes the movie funny.

I don't even know if the movie's "good"-ness or "bad"-ness or "so-bad-it's-good"-ness or "so-not-bad-it's-bad"-ness matters anymore. Once you've seen the woman's boob bitten, and then the man's weenie, everything is besides the point. This is drive-in cinema for the internet age. Step right up, get your thrills and laughs, watch lots of snakes, and then wait for Samuel Jackson to utter the now-famous line, "I'm sick and tired of these mother-f---ing snakes on this mother-f---ing plane." That's all that matters. If you don't get why this is funny, then don't go. It's funny because it's phenomenally stupid, and the collective group of people laughing at its phenomenal stupidity have reached an absurd critical mass, and the whole event is just....funny. I saw "Snakes on a Plane" last night (Friday) and couldn't believe how inept the opening scenes were, but could barely stop laughing after the snakes came out. By the end, I knew I'd gotten much more than my money's worth. But I do agree with Zacharek about one thing: They could have found better ways to show off the snakes. And killing off the honeymooners was a little rotten.