Con Air

"They somehow managed to get every creep and freak in the universe onto this one plane. And then somehow managed to let them take it over. And then somehow managed to stick us right smack in the middle." - Poe

release year: 1997
genre: action
viewing setting: home DVD, 4/21/16 and 1/29/10 and 6/30/01, home laserdisc 12/21/97, theater 6/6/97

synopsis: Decorated U.S. Army Ranger ends up in jail for defending his wife against scum, finally gets paroled, but is put on flight full of the most dangerous criminals, who promptly escape.

impressions: This might have been the perfect action movie except for one thing: Nicolas Cage's horrible southern accent. Was it really necessary? Aside from that, I have no complaints about this movie - it delivers plenty of action (fights, guns, fire, planes, chases...everything!) and has some meorable characters and lines.

something this movie has that no other movie has: A Corvette dangling beneath a plane in flight.

acting: Nicholas Cage overdoes it as the good ol' Louisiana boy who must be a hero once again. John Cusack plays it cool as the FBI agent trying to help Cage. Colm Meaney is an unlikeable good-guy-who-wants-to-blow-the-plane-out-of-the-air. John Malkovich, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, and Danny Trejo head the cast of dangerous convicts. Rachel Ticotin is a sympathetic guard.

final word: rip-roaring chaos, good variation of Die Hard theme

back to the main review page