Snakes on a Plane (2006)

It was January 2016 when I first heard of Snakes on a Place, when many people picked it for the airplane themed week of Thursday Movie Picks. That's for how long I've been meaning to watch this but kept putting it off instead. 

The plot goes like this. After witnessing the murder of an American prosecutor by the powerful mobster Eddie Kim (Bryon Lawson) while on vacation in Hawaii, Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips) is persuaded by FBI agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) to testify against Kim in Los Angeles. For the trip back, they take the entire First Class section of a red-eye flight, thinking that Jones would be safe there. Unfortunately for them and everyone else on that plane, Kim has dispatched hundreds of venomous snakes with a crate with the intent of crashing the plane and hence stop Jones from testifying. 

At this point, we are about thirty minutes into the film. The remaining hour or so is nothing but snakes trying to kill people and people trying to kill snakes. It's certainly not the most exciting of plots; actually, there's no plot here as nothing really happens, it's all very predictable and the biggest plot twist is the steward not being gay —it did leave me speechless though. 

The characters are just as poorly written as they are nothing but horror stereotypes with zero characterization and depth. Most of them have no purpose whatsoever as they die as soon as they are introduced, and they all do the most idiotic, illogical things you could do in such a scenario. They also are pretty annoying and unlikeable, and the only character I cared about was a flight attendant on her last flight who wants to pursue a career as a lawyer, because how on Earth would Julianna Margulies play Alicia Florrick in The Good Wife if she died on that plane?

The acting is bloody awful. Not only most of the performances are beyond wooden, but they also are tremendously cheesy. Samuel L. Jackson and Julianna Margulies are the only saving graces as the first gives quite a humorous although typical performance, and the later is very likeable.

New Line Cinema

The special effects are pretty bad too. From the cartoonish snakes to the incredibly fake-looking plane, CGI certainly isn't Snakes on a Plane's strength. Also, I found the scenes from the snakes' point of view utterly annoying.

All of that being said, I didn't hate the film. Sure, it has many, countless flaws, but there's something it has accomplished, it kept me engaged and entertained throughout the whole running time. That sure is something.

The Fundamentals of Caring (2016)

Unlike the movies that I've been watching lately, The Fundamentals of Caring was not on my watchlist but I watched it anyway because I was in the mood for Paul Rudd and this was one of the Paul Rudd movies available on Netflix. 

The story follows Ben (Paul Rudd), a retired writer who is in need of a job and decides to become a caregiver. After completing a six-week course, he is hired by Elsa (Jennifer Ehle) to care for her sardonic and anxious 18-year-old son, Trevor (Craig Roberts), who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. After a bumpy start, Ben and Trevor embark on a road trip to see American roadside attractions. Along the way, they pick up a foul-mouthed runaway, Dot (Selena Gomez), and a pregnant woman, Peaches (Megan Ferguson). 

The Fundamentals of Caring has pretty much the same plot every single road trip movie follows, it's filled with clichés, and it's rather predictable. Also, it kind of lacks obstacles, like every single thing goes as smoothly as it can possibly go. Still, it's interesting enough to keep you engaged and ultimately the story delivers an important message —it's only up to us to decide whether we want to live our life to its fullest or use excuses to change nothing about our lives, live the same day over and over, and remain stuck where we are. 

As for the main characters, there's something about them that quite didn't work with me. As I was expecting, both Ben and Trevor, especially the latter, are quite unlikeable characters at the beginning. Unfortunately, although they do have a nice development, they don't grow on you as much as you would expect them to. I liked, however, how The Fundamentals of Caring used them to poke fun at the clichés about disabled people in movies, and the chemistry between Paul Rudd and Craig Roberts is so genuine and touching, it's a real pleasure to watch them. Also, they both do a nice job in their roles, the first as a man who won't let go of his past, and the latter as a teenager who is afraid to leave his comfort zone and live life to its fullest.

Netflix

The female characters and performances, on the other hand, are bland to say the least. Neither Dot nor Peaches add to the plot —the first, despite the fact that she is the one kind of pushing Trevor out of his comfort zone (he has a crush on her and therefore does everything he thinks she thinks is cool), is nothing but a needless love interest; as for the latter, I'm still trying to figure out why she's there, maybe to make the skin of people who dislike babies and such crawl (yes, that's the reaction I have when I see babies). They are just shallow and unrealistic and don't seem to fit with the rest of the film. Also, Selena Gomez, while she does okay in the dramatic moments, has the worst comedic timing ever. And speaking of waste, the filmmakers thought it was cool to have Bobby Cannavale play a super minor role as Gomez's father.

Ultimately, The Fundamentals of Caring is not a terrible film but it's not even as good as it could have been. I mean, the script is quite a mess and other than Rudd, nobody seems to care to balance drama and comedy or be able to do both.