Snakes on a Plane

What can I say about Snakes on a Plane? There were snakes, there was a plane, Sam Jackson said his line, and we all got to go home happy. What more could you want from it? As Reel Fanatic points out most reviews start with something like "It's a bad movie, but...", but I'm going to say it's a good movie because it knows what it is and it doesn't try for more. If you're going to do only one thing, do it well, and SoaP did that. I watched it more through the lens of a disaster movie than a horror picture, and I think that's why I probably thought it worked so well. There's a very basic setup (surfer guy witnesses a murder, FBI wants him to testify, they put him on the plane, add snakes and watch the fun!) that gets us to the action and that's perfect. We don't need a ton of exposition, all we need is a reason for the cast to be in the position they are and once the plane is in the air there's nothing to do but wait and see who dies. There are the people you know won't, the people you know will, the people you hope will, and the people you hope don't but have a sneaking suspicion that they're so likeable because they are going to be killed. There's that certain satisfaction when the total asshole bites it and the moment of sadness when the nice guy gets his and, sick as it may sound, isn't that what we really love about watching these kinds of movies?