What’s this all about?
An Airborne Ranger kills a man in a fist fight, and because the filmmakers don’t understand how trials work, he is sentenced to a really long time in prison, where he reads books and hangs out with Bubba from Forrest Gump and writes lengthy letters to his small child.
Upon his parole, he finds himself in the middle of an unlikely prison break on an equally unlikely airplane.
It’s one of those plans that at points requires pinpoint precision that could be foiled by a single person not doing exactly what they are expected to do (including people not involved in the plan) at some points, and at other points seems to depend entirely on dumb luck. For example, if Dave Chappelle had been seated in one of the many empty rows on the plane instead of next to another inmate, the plan would have failed from the start. The criminals hijacking the plane don’t seem to be aware that the plane, for some reason, has a cargo hold full of small arms, so I don’t imagine they had much control over the seating chart.
Things explode, one liners are delivered, more things explode, and an old man probably pees his pants. Then Nick returns to Las Vegas and attacks a fire truck with a police motorcycle. Then some more things explode.
Also, Johns Cusack and Malkovitch are there.
Who is Nick in this one?
Nick plays “Cameron Poe,” a former Airborne Ranger, sentenced to prison for being too badass to be allowed in public, or something like that. He’s honest, forthright, and stands up for the innocent. He also reads “Off Road Magazine,” which the filmmakers felt was important.
Who else is in this one?
The supporting cast in this film is simply mind-blowing.
John Cusack (Better off Dead and Grosse Pointe Blank) plays a U.S. Marshall who has unspecified duties. He chases a stolen plane full of escaped convicts all over the place, and generally accomplishes very little. I feel like Cusack phones this one in, but there’s not much meat in the role, so it’s fine.
John Malkovitch (the single greatest living actor, IMO) plays “Cyrus ‘The Virus’”, a sociopath and the leader of the bad guys. Malkovitch delivers a believable performance, but the character is basically a maniac. His “master plan” isn’t clever or unique. He’s just a crazy bad guy.
Colm Meaney (Chief Miles O’Brien) plays a DEA agent. I feel like the director just told him, “be the biggest asshole possible,” and he complied. You’ve heard of two dimensional characters. This is somehow a one dimensional character. He’s just an asshole. He doesn’t do anything meaningful or useful.
Mykelti Willaimson (Bubba from Forrest Gump) Plays “‘Baby O’ O’Dell,” Nick’s cellmate. He’s diabetic, and spends the majority of the movie needing insulin. For some of the movie, I suspect that he can’t feel his legs, which is one of the actor’s strengths.
Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction) plays another violent criminal. Honestly, it doesn’t even matter. So much of the talent in this movie is wasted. These criminals are given trumped up backstories and cool-sounding names, and are then basically just used as interchangeable bad guys. We all know that Ving Rhames can play a compelling and genuinely menacing criminal. He doesn’t do it in this movie.
Dave Chappelle (Friday) plays the comic relief criminal. He drops a lot of one-liners, then dies.
Danny Trejo (Dusk Till Dawn) plays the only character that he’s ever played. He’s yet another bad guy. Great. I hate Danny Trejo.
M.C. Gainey (Django Unchained) is yet another actor who has a history of playing interesting, compelling characters. In Con Air, he’s the generic bad guy who can fly a plane.
Steve Buscemi (The Wedding Singer) plays a comedic Jeffry Dahmer-type. I think he’s meant to be comic relief, but it’s also implied that he murdered a little girl during the course of the film, and that he escapes at the end. Buscemi is entertaining as always, but I honestly don’t get the love for this character.
Rachel Ticotin (Total Recall) plays “Guard Sally” who solely exists as a prop that Nick prevents from getting raped. Again, this actress was great in the action-driven Total Recall. She is totally wasted in Con Air.
Did you see that?
I’m going to cheat, here, and not pick a specific scene. Instead, I’m going to call out every single action scene in the film. This movie is nothing but pure action. It is simply built on giant action scenes.
There are some really cool ideas lined up. A heavily armed gang of murderers fights off a convoy of soldiers (or cops, or something) in an airplane junkyard. An airplane full of murderers crash lands on the Vegas strip. Numerous tough guys face each other in one-on-one combat.
Unfortunately, you don’t really see any of it.
You see Ving Rhames shoot a machine gun. You see a bunch of soldiers blow up. You see a bunch of cop cars screech to a halt. You see Danny Trejo run around.
No effort is made to actually set up the action scenes so that the viewer can tell what’s going on. Edits are fast and harsh, and jump from one end of the scene to another wildly. People will tell you that this was done (and is done in many other movies of this era) to create a chaotic POV feel. I think that’s bullshit. I think it’s done to keep the cost of filming down. It’s disjoined and really undercuts the “action” in this action movie. -Michael
I also have something that isn’t a specific scene, but something throughout. I just couldn’t get over the choice of hair style that Nic had once he went to prison. They gave him a weave, but only in the back. It was the worst looking mullet on a man who has large widow’s peaks and who’s hair is too thin on top to be long. It basically made Nick look trashy and stuck in the past. Because, let’s face it, mullets were an 80’s thing, not a 90’s thing. -Sarah
What were Nick’s best parts?
This is tough, because there’s honestly not a single well-acted scene featuring Cage in this film. Since I have to pick, I’m going to go with the scene in which Steve Buscemi’s Jeffrey Dahmer-type character is seated in the main compartment of the plane, near Cage.
Cage returns to his seat after some undoubtedly insufferable conversation with Cyrus “The Virus”. Buscemi says something vaguely perplexing and philosophical, causing Cage to adopt a facial expression that clearly says, “what the hell is this nonsense?” It’s one of the few scenes in the movie in which the characters react to one of the comedy bits, and it encapsulates my feelings about this entire movie. -Michael
Oh damn – I picked the same scene. His heart to heart with Steve Buscemi’s character really is the best his emotional acting got in this movie. This movie was more about the physical demands. So since I have to choose another scene, I’m going to go with the physical acting involved when Nick gets into a fight in the belly of the plane. He has to kill a guy because he figured out that Nick was lying to stay on the plane to protect the lady guard from getting raped and to help Bubba get insulin and not die. It’s actually a good thing that the guy he needed to kill tried to kill him first, otherwise the “morals” of his character would have been an issue.
I want to make it perfectly clear here that my rating is based solely on the fighting in a space that is only 4 feet tall and both parties had to be crouched down the entire time. It really made the jump kicks impressive. I am not giving this scene best acting credit for the infamous “Put the bunny back in the box” line. -Sarah
What were Nick’s worst parts?
This movie features some of Nicolas Cage’s worst acting, so this was tough.
Throughout the movie, Cage’s character talks to himself incessantly, and everything he tells himself is dumb. However, the worst dialog (and acting) comes near the end of the film, when Cage gives Cusack the following message to deliver to Cage’s wife.
If you speak to my wife again, you tell her: that I love her. She’s my hummingbird. But, I couldn’t leave a fallen man behind.
He delivers this idiotic line with the stupid faux-Southern accent that he affects for the entire film. It’s awful. -Michael
Nick’s accent choice in this movie is just bad. I truly feel that the entire movie would have been better if he had gone a different route on that. Michael is right, the “hummingbird” scene is the best example of how back this accent was. The second best example is at the end of the movie when he is on the fire truck racing through a Vegas tunnel and says: “You won’t get near my daughter.” right before handcuffing Malkovich to the fire truck. -Sarah
How was the movie?
Con Air is a big-budget action movie without any really good action scenes. It’s full of scenes and lines that are meant to be comedic, but none of the characters (except for maybe Chappelle) seem to be in on the jokes. This movie doesn’t know if it’s trying to be First Blood: Part II, or Rush Hour. Consequently, it’s neither. It’s just dumb noisiness, and badly-delivered quips that don’t mean anything or go anywhere, surrounded by pointless gunfire and explosions. -Michael
Much like The Rock, this movie is a typical action comedy from the 90’s. In fact, I think it might be the pinnacle of the genre. If you need nothing more than non-stop action and a bunch of one-liners, this is the movie for you. – Sarah
Yeah, but did you like it? (Michael/Sarah)
I didn’t. I know a lot of people think this one is good, mindless fun, but it’s just too stupid for me. -Michael
It’s okay, I enjoy it well enough that I don’t mind re watching it. If I was home sick on the sofa back in the days before being able to stream on demand, I would have been thrilled to find this while flipping channels. -Sarah
Where can I watch it?
You can rent it on Amazon Prime.
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