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Film

'Snakes' onboard

By STEVE PERSALL
Published August 17, 2006

[New Line Cinema]

Snakes on a Plane

Internet buzz - or is that a hiss? - for Snakes on a Plane (R) has been building for nearly a year since that marvelous title was announced. The monicker is refreshingly direct, devoid of any expectations except an enjoyably bad movie. Any degree of cinematic quality will be a bonus.

Samuel L. Jackson is the only action hero still tough enough to tangle with poisonous serpents in tight quarters. He plays FBI agent Nelville Flynn, escorting a witness against the mob to trial. Protective custody usually doesn't include fending off hundreds of snakes unleashed by assassins to kill the witness and anyone else in the way. This assignment does.

Also aboard are Julianna Margulies (TV's ER and The Sopranos), Saturday Night Live comedian Kenan Thompson, and Bobby Cannivale (The Station Agent, The Night Whisperer). The real stars are those slithering snakes attacking Mile High Clubbers in the lavatory, dropping from carry-on baggage bins and generally making the skies unfriendly.

New Line Cinema realized it doesn't need critical buzz to make this a must-see movie - another perversely admirable confession of its schlock value - and didn't allow screenings until late tonight. We'll publish a review on Saturday's Page 2B.

- STEVE PERSALL, Times film critic

Money changes everything

The devil wears Skechers in Material Girls (PG), a comedy starring teen pop idol Hilary Duff and her older sister Haylie as Tanzie and Ava Marchetta, sibling heiresses to a cosmetics fortune.

Tanzie and Ava are spoiled by family wealth until a scandal ends the gravy train and the girls are forced to get real jobs. That is about the time the movie should end for the sake of a values lesson. However, we can expect something to restore their bank accounts, hopefully without losing the money-isn't-everything message.

Material Girls wasn't screened in time for Weekend review. Somehow it doesn't encourage the same optimism as Snakes on a Plane in similar, unseen circumstances.

- S.P.

[Last modified August 16, 2006, 11:04:18]