'Snakes On A Plane' (R)(out of four)

I have a natural resistance to going to any movie more than 10 people tell me I "have" to go see. Thus it was with no small trepidation I took my seat in a nearly-empty theater for the first show of "Snakes On A Plane," which anyone who lives within five blocks of a computer knows is one of the most buzzed-about films of the summer.

The marketing campaign for the film was edgy, to say the least, involving extensive interplay between star Samuel L. Jackson, who plays FBI agent Neville Flynn, and the rabid fanboys on the Internet, who were reputed to actually have influenced certain aspects of the story. After studio meddling, the film's title was at one point changed to "Pacific Air 121," and the sex and violence were muzzled in pursuit of a PG-13 rating. Jackson led the charge, and the finished product bears its "R" rating proudly.

After seeing the movie, I'd like to personally thank each and every one of you Web denizens, and Big Sam himself, for helping shape a movie that gave me the most fun I've had in a theater since I quit going to "Rocky Horror" midnight shows.

Make no mistake, "Snakes" is not great art. There is no "Rosebud ..." (although Jackson's signature line, too profanity-ridden to repeat here, is more fun to say). There will be no Oscars, and even the often-wacky folks who vote on the Golden Globes are not likely to gift, say, Julianna Margulies with a statuette. Margulies, last seen mooning over George Clooney on "E.R.," makes a solid return to life in the film as a flight attendant on the titular plane making her last flight before going off to become a lawyer.

The plane is chock-full of cliches. We have the older flight attendant who "could have taken early retirement," the young mother with her baby in a sling, the Valley girl with her dog in a purse (Rachel Blanchard, reprising her "Clueless" role) and an assortment of other familiar character types. However, everyone truly seems to be on top of their games. While Jackson, Margulies and Nathan Phillips, as the witness under Jackson's protection, dominate the plot, everyone else turns in good efforts.

And did I mention the snakes? There hasn't been a more menacing mass of reptilian muscle since Indiana Jones stared down into the pit and saw his slithery pals waiting below. There are big snakes, little snakes, constrictors, biters, hissers, lurkers, stalkers and jumpers. The only thing missing was a snake playing a banjo, which wouldn't have surprised me a bit. If you are at all afraid of snakes, might I suggest some of the other fine offerings your multiplex has to offer? I hear there are plenty of seats available in "Talladega Nights." The most astonishing thing to me was the evolution of CGI represented here. The snakes were a mix of CGI and real, and very often the difference between them was indistinguishable.

As for the plot ... well, there is one, technically. I won't spoil it for you too much, but suffice it to say that Phillips' character, Sean, sees a bad guy do a very bad thing, and agrees to testify. Said bad guy discovers which plane Sean and Flynn are boarding, and sees to it that his scaly little assassins make it on board. From there, it's pretty much your straightforward "survive long enough to land" scenario.

Such simplicity could lead to boredom, but not here. This is popcorn filmmaking at its very finest, with every chill well-timed and every gross-out unexpected. There are chuckles aplenty, especially concerning how to remove the poison from a bite on the gluteus of one generously-sized passenger. Jackson prowls the plane, chewing scenery left and right. Margulies does her "concerned" face a lot and, as the bodies start to stack up, we get some surprisingly well-crafted glimpses of true human nature.

There are touches throughout the movie that show that this is not someone's idea of a throwaway movie. Director David Ellis gets the most out of every one of his actors, and while again, there's no great art being made, the resulting film is more fun than a barrel of cobras.

I laughed, I jumped, I stayed through the credits to watch the music video.