2. Juli 2019: Snakes on a Plane + Airplane! (Double Feature, OV: English)

Snakes on a Plane

USA, Deutschland (2006)


ab 16 Dolby Digital CinemaScope
Regie: David R. Ellis
Schauspieler: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianna Margulies, Nathan Phillips
105 Minuten
Snakes on a plane!

Extremely high safety measures were taken to protect the Boeing 747-400 going to Los Angeles International Airport where trial witness passenger Sean Jones is about to testify. Jones witnessed the brutal murder of a U.S. prosecutor in Hawaii and plans to put an end to gang boss Eddie Kim.

But Kim is not your everyday life criminal. He wants to bring down that plane and instead of using classic means like bombs to do so, the full extent of his influence is shown as the plane departs and a full crate of aggressive venomous snakes is released inside the aircraft. Oxygen masks deploying from the ceiling? Good luck handling those falling snakes. Plan on joining the mile high club? Guess you will die a glorious death while having sex on an airplane toilet which turns out to be a threesome with a snake. Will Sean Jones make it to LA? What about the flight crew or a possibly available antivenom? Sit back. Relax. Enjoy the fright.

All those CGI snakes can be quite shudder-inducing. But there is also something cheerfully ridiculous in the way the film switches to rubber snakes for hand-to-hand combat. (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)

Airplane!

USA (1980)


ab 6 Dolby SR 1,85:1
Regie: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker
Schauspieler: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen
88 Minuten
Clearance, Clarence? Roger, Roger! Huh?

Ted Striker is a traumatized ex fighter pilot war veteran with a serious drinking problem. Drinking problem? Well, splashing every drink all over himself is in fact somewhat critical. Probably just as critical as his mission to win back his girlfriend Elaine, who works as a flight attendant and currently en route from LA to Chicago, where the following disaster soon develops.

With Ted and plenty of other passengers on board, an incapacitated flight crew with food poisoning isn’t great news but might not necessarily be a reason to be alarmed – as long as there is anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane? Luckily, there is! The inflatable autopilot may take over control. But isn’t there an even better solution? Again, there is. All eyes are on Ted now, who has indeed developed a fear of flying, but who is also their last chance to make it back to the ground alive. Very much to his own disbelieve: “Surely, you can’t be serious?” – “I am, and don’t call me Shirley”!

There’s hardly a second that passes without an assault by a wickedly accurate spoof, cringe-inducing pun or inspired sight gag, and the years have not diminished the film’s dumb appeal. (John Ferguson, Radio Times)