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All Movie Info
Starring:
Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich, John Cusack, Mykelti Williamson, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Colm Meaney, Rachel Ticotin, Dave Chappelle, M.C. Gainey, Danny Trejo, Nicholas Chinlund, Jesse Borrego, Angela Featherstone, Monica Potter, John Roselius, Jose Zuniga
Directed By:
Simon West
Written By:
Scott Rosenberg
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Con Air (1997)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
June 26th, 2008
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'Con Air' features another one of those great John Malkovich villains, a sadistic psychopath named Cyrus Grissom, who hijacks the plane transporting him and other violent criminals to a new prison facility somewhere in Alabama. Cyrus was inspired I would guess by Hannibal Lecter; he is a monster responsible for many abominable crimes, which is he proud of, and yet he is also extremely intelligent, cultured and sophisticated; we are told that he earned two collegiate degrees while in jail, a superfluous tidbit of information that serves only to illustrate that yes, this guy is smart, which makes him all the more dangerous. There is a fine line between genius and insanity, after all. Cyrus masterminds the hijacking operation, but has several collaborators, including Nathan "Diamond Dog" Jones (Ving Rhames), Billy "Bedlam" Bedford (Nick Chinlund), and even obnoxious junkie Pinball Parker (Dave Chappelle), all of whom follow Cyrus because they are afraid of him, or, as criminals, they respect the fact that his rap sheet is longer than theirs. The problem is that one of the inmates is Cameron Poe (Nicholas Cage), a former Army Ranger who has recently been paroled, and has no intention of going along with Cyrus's scheme; he just wants to be reunited with his wife Tricia (Monica Potter) and the daughter he has never seen. Poe is compelled by a sense of duty to defend female guard Sally Bishop (Rachel Ticotin) from the advances of demented rapist Johnny Baca (Danny Trejo), and to find a way to get his diabetic friend Baby-O (Mykelti Williamson) the insulin shot he so desperately needs. Poe is thus the convict with the heart of gold, and he plans on stopping Cyrus; his Ranger training has made him a skilled martial artist, which is useful since guns are scarce.
On the ground, U.S. marshal Vince Larkin (John Cusack) tries to find a way to bring the plane down without destroying it, something that puts him at conflict with arrogant and morose DEA agent Duncan Malloy (Colm Meaney), one of those official types who is always incredibly short-sighted, and easily fooled, and often makes the worst possible decision. Cusack seems miscast, out of his element in the bombastic action scenes, it is up to Poe to do all of the fighting, and Cage got beefed up for this role, his muscled arms fully exposed as he spends the latter part of the movie running around in a tank top, sweaty and covered in dirt. His overall appearance is that of trailer trash, but then that is the whole idea, along with his faulty and corny southern accent. The action sequences themselves are eye-popping, filled with amazing stunts, lots of explosions and ample amounts of gore. Most of the action is confined to interior of the plane, but there is a bloody shootout at an abandoned airfield, and the landing of the massive jet in the middle of the Las Vegas strip, followed by a chase involving motorcycles and fire trucks. Needless to say, there is a lot of property damage, the neon guitar logo at the Hard Rock Café gets broken in half, and the aforementioned chase ends with a vehicle crashing into the lobby of a glitzy casino. All of this is consistent with the film's nature as a Jerry Bruckheimer production. And with Simon West instead of Michael Bay at the helm, the movie actually demonstrates some technical craftsmanship, even if, as in Pearl Harbor, sentimentality is forcibly injected in the form of a sappy pop-country tune by Diane Warren (which won an Oscar); I believe it is performed by Trisha Yearwood, but it is at least better than the song Faith Hill sang in Pearl Harbor.
Steve Buscemi shows up as the extraordinarily creepy Garland Greene, who is transferred to Grissom's plane in a manner reminiscient of Hannibal Lecter, and when released, sits calmly and quietly as chaos ensues around him. It is weirdly amusing, except for one moment where Greene (a mass murderer) has a conversation with a little girl, even plays dolls with her, and when we no longer see her, we assume the worst. Greene makes a sudden reappearance at the very end, enjoying his unexpected freedom, and we wonder how the authorities could have overlooked him, given his apparent nationwide infamy.
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