Con Air (1997)
Con Air defies traditional movie reviewing conventions. You can easily argue that it's bad. The premise is zany, Nicholas Cage's performance is bewildering, and sometimes it’s so over-the-top you’ve got to laugh. One must also consider the entertainment value, however. When it wants to be funny, it is, and the wide variety of action sequences will make your jaw drop. It may be bouncing off the walls in a straight jacket, but largely, that's the tone it's going for. Even if it isn’t, things come together nicely.
Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage) is about to be released from prison after serving 8 years of a prison sentence for bogus charges. While being transferred, several high-profile super-criminals led by Cyrus “The Virus” Grissom (John Malkovich) highjack their transport plane. Refusing to let this collection of serial killers, rapists, psychotics, and megalomaniacs escape, Cameron stays aboard and, with the help of U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin (John Cusack), attempts to thwart their efforts to go free.
You can’t talk about Con Air without addressing Nicolas Cage. I don’t know what director Simon West was thinking. Cage is armed with two head-scratchers: a ridiculous mullet and a bad Louisiana accent. Neither are necessary and maintaining said accent appears to occupy so much of Cage’s mental capacity he struggles to emote in any scene.
The premise sounds like something from a DC comic book - in a good way. In fact, someone should rips this film off and substitutes Steve Buscemi’s character with the Joker, Danny Trejo’s with Killer Croc, and the rest of the cast with similarly colored supervillains. In most movies, you’ve got one, maybe two baddies with outlandish dialogue and memorable scenes. Here you get a buffet of them. Some you like, some you hate, all of them have your attention.
Sometimes, the thugs Cameron is forced against are bit too much, but once more, I find myself forgiving the film because of the overall experience. When it comes to the action, it’s wall-to-wall with plenty of variety. As Cyrus and his followers make their escape, you'll be thrilled, wondering what explosion-laden location they’ll land in next. All realism is absent but – and I can’t emphasize this enough - you won’t care. It’s too much fun seeing everyone in these roles. Plus, once in a while, you just want to see a pile of human waste get the human waste beaten out of them by a hero that's basically a living cliché. Sometimes, that's just what the doctor called for. This is the kind of picture you show to your father and bond over. It’s a man’s movie with a lot of laughs. Some deliberate. John Cusack and many others have genuinely comedic dialogue. Other times, you howl at the movie’s expense... but not really? The point is the film delivers what you want to see.
To properly enjoy Con Air, you need to know exactly what you're getting into. At times it's like it was written by a committee of 13-year-olds hell-bent on making the most awesome Nicholas Cage movie without understanding how to properly use him. That’s also what makes it endearing. I’d call Con Air dumb fun, but that implies it's never genuinely good. (Unrated, Extended Cut on DVD, November 4, 2016)
