By Carl Zielinski
Gargoyle staff writer
Posted Saturday, Nov. 18, 2006, The OG, arts

[Note: The DVD version of “Snakes on a Plane” is scheduled to be released on Jan. 2.]

DVD release: Coming soon

AN ENORMOUS VARIETY of venomous snakes on a jet aircraft — the very idea is so simple, yet so brilliant. Any number of Uni students would agree.

Junior Paul Dampier reminisces about the first time he heard about “Snakes on a Plane” in early 2006.

“I heard about it on the radio,” he said. “I immediately thought that it was hilarious, and that I had to see that movie. I just went wild.”

Within months, “Snakes on a Plane” suddenly had tons of people talking.

Uni was not immune to the film's charm. As early as June this year, “Snakes on a Plane!!” was written on the north wall of the lounge. But what exactly do people love so much about this movie? Its dialogue is horrible (when the lights in the plane turn off, people start yelling, “The snakes turned off the lights!”), the humor is far below any discernable taste, and the title reveals almost the entire plot.

As with most films, the reaction to how it turned out was mixed. Junior Jamie Weiser seemed to think it was good, but not worthy of the notoriety.

“It's kind of like the movie ‘Napoleon Dynamite,'” she said. “A lot of people were obsessed with it, even though it wasn't really extremely great.”

Despite individual reactions, the title seems to be the movie's greatest asset. While such a plot-revealing title would normally ruin most movies, it seems to only have enhanced the prestige of “Snakes.”

“It seemed like the greatest advertising campaign ever,” said an enthusiastic Dampier. “I was hooked as soon as I heard the title.”

Despite that hook, the film collected a surprisingly meager box office draw, earning only $33.8 million domestically, with $13.8 milion from the opening weekend. In fact, “Snakes” is 42nd on the list of lowest-earning No. 1 weekend debuts. The very lowest was “Jerry Maguire,” starring Tom Cruise, which made only $5.5 million in its opening weekend.

No matter its box office success, the film has a rabid Internet following. After rumors of “Snakes” began flowing in 2005, sites devoted to the film began popping up everywhere on the Web. In fact, due to the Internet hype an additional five days of shooting were added onto the initial film in order to raise the MPAA rating from a PG-13 to a more noteworthy R.

Not only has the release of the film not stopped the flow of parodies, but it has probably expanded them. The number of flash videos and badly made joke images grows steadily, with little chance of stopping. While the number of horrible parodies is enormous, there are also some noteworthy Internet additions.

“Steaks on a Train” on YouTube is a humorous play on the title, featuring a fake Michael Jackson attacking vicious cuts of meat in a runaway train. “Teletubbies on a Plane” represents the more bizarre end of the spectrum, although “Badgers on a Plane” easily rivals it for sheer oddity. There are numerous other noteworthy clips, which can be found from any search engine or any online searching utility.

So did “Snakes” live up to what was expected of it? That would depend on whom you asked. If people expected a silly, quaint movie with a gimmick, they got it. If people just wanted to see entertaining kill scenes, their wish came true as well. If you are a fan of action movies and are worried about a complicated plot to follow, then your fears should melt away.

No matter what they usually enjoy, and no matter how many times they saw it in theaters this summer, most movie fans will want to see “Snakes” when it comes out on DVD Jan. 2, if for no other reason than that shouting out Samuel L. Jackson's classic line — “I've had it with these mothaf—-ing snakes on this mothaf—-ing plane!” — never gets old.