Con Air [MA]

Cameron Poe has waited in prison 8 years for the day when he would make parole and get to go home to his wife and little girl. The day and has finally come and nothing in the world can spoil it. Well, almost nothing. The maximum-security prison plane that Poe rides on also carries a large number of the country’s most dangerous criminals who hijack the plane, led by infamous murderer Cyrus ‘The Virus’ Grissom. Determined to get home, but also save the life of his best friend who rides with him, Poe wages a one-man war within the company of dastardly crims whilst the authorities bungle their way through a recovery operation on the outside. 

If you’re looking for a solid mindless action movie that is just continuous bouts of chaos one right after the other, then this is the movie to make a beeline for. With its great cast, explosive action sequences, and group of frightful yet entertaining characters, it’s not a work of cinema that works on the scale of, say, Die Hard, but it’s still a movie that’s fun to sit down and watch. I bought a copy for my Mum because she remembers loving it and when we finally sat down and watched it together today, she said that it still delivered the same thrills and feelings that it when she first saw it years ago. That’s the mark of a good film. 

At first I couldn’t quite see where this story was headed. We begin with the initial crime that lands Poe in prison. There’s a bit of questioning that occurs because essentially this guy gets treated differently by the law than any other guy would because he’s a military man, “a killing machine” as the judge says. Whilst the judgement doesn’t make sense or even scream justice, it does successfully put us in the predisposition that practically all figures of authority in this movie are going to be dickheads and, with the exception of cute, baby-faced John Cusack, we’re right. There really isn’t a lot in this movie in terms of a story, it really does boil down to a good guy caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

The majority of the film’s efforts are on the parts of the special effects departments and the direction in the action sequences because that’s really all that this flick is: action, action, action over and over and over again. I’m all for a good action sequences and the mindless ones too and you get a good serving of both in this movie. 

One thing that is particularly mind-numbing but still adrenaline-pinching is all the action movie clichés that get rammed into this thing. Amongst my personal favourites are the overuse of slow-motion particularly when fires and explosions are imminent, and the multiple low angle shots we get of our hero as well as the various criminals to heighten just how badass they are, even Nicholas Cage’s outfit of a white singlet and jeans has “action movie cliché” stamped all over it! But at the end of the day, it’s these clichés that we recognise and it actually brings that fun factor to the film because you cannot help but laugh a bit at it. 

Starring Nicholas Cage, John Cusack, John Malkovich, Colm Meaney, Mykelti Williamson, Nick Chinlund, Renoly Santiago, Ving Rhames, Dave Chappelle, Rachel Ticotin, Steve Eastin, Danny Trejo, M. C Gainey, Monica Potter, and Steve Buscemi, Con Air is a mindless and fun action movie filled with murder, bloodshed, fistfights, gunplay, drama, explosions, plane chases, car chases, every kind of chase under the sun really; yeah pretty much just filled with all of the action. Whilst it doesn’t have the fun script with memorable macho one-liners like Die Hard, it’s still a fun movie that will pass the time. I quite enjoyed it.