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Five out of Five stars
Running time: 100 mins

Hugely enjoyable, unashamedly trashy thriller that works perfectly, delivering shocks, scares, laughs and cheers in equal measure. Oh and snakes. Lots of snakes. On a plane.

What's it all about?
Nathan Philips plays Sean Jones, a young man who witnesses a brutal murder committed by gangster Eddie Kim (Bryon Lawson). It's up to FBI Agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L Jackson) to ensure that Sean makes it to the trial in order to testify, but neither Flynn nor Sean counted on Kim filling their flight with deadly snakes and when the slippery blighters get released from their cage mid-flight, all hell slithers loose.

The Good
This is a huge amount of fun thanks to inventive, fast-paced direction by David R. Ellis (who made last year's equally trashy-but-enjoyable Cellular) and a terrific performance by Jackson. It's fair to say that no film has ever delivered so completely on its premise as Snakes On A Plane and for once the pre-film hype turns out to have been justified.

You could make a list of things you wanted to see in Snakes On A Plane and the film would almost certainly deliver on all counts. Snakes attacking a couple during the application process for the Mile High Club? Check. Snakes attacking from the toilet? Check. Samuel L Jackson attacking the snakes with a tazer? Well, now you're just spoiling us.

The Great
The supporting cast (including Rachel Blanchard as a thinly-veiled Paris Hilton clone and Julianne Margulies as a resourceful flight attendant) are excellent and there's a lot of fun to be had in guessing which of them will end up as snake fodder. The script is packed full of quotable lines - Oh great. Snakes on crack! but Ellis gets the tone exactly right, never descending into farce, despite the clearly ridiculous premise.

Worth seeing?
Put simply, this is quite possibly the most fun you'll have in the cinema all year. If you like the title, you'll love the film. Highly recommended.