PUSHING TIN by DeWyNGaLe Rating: B-
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20th Century Fox is now on a roll. This year, they have released many of what I call "could have been great" films that have had everything in place to make an outstanding, one of a kind film. Pushing Tin is just another to add to the list. The main element in this film that could have made it an ‘A' film is the wonderful cast. John Cusack, Academy Award nominee Cate Blanchett, Academy Award winner Billy Bob Thornton, and Golden Globe winner Angelina Jolie are the key cast in this comedy/drama about the occupation of air traffic controlling.
John Cusack stars as Nick Falzone, an air traffic controller. He is the best at his station, and everyone admires his wonderful work of saving lives all day long. Nick is at a great stage in his life. He is very happy in his marriage with Connie, played by Cate Blanchett, whom he has two kids with. One day, all of that changes. A new air traffic controller is introduced to his station. His name is Russell Bell (Billy Bob Thornton), and is top notch as well. Nick starts competing with him right off the bat. For the rest of the film, the two compete to see who is the better man. Sometimes this is funny, but sometimes it can be very dramatic as well.
At first it is all fun between the two, but then things start to turn bad. Nick finds himself losing everything he had. He even cheats on Connie with Russell's alcoholic wife, Mary, played by Angelina Jolie. From the point where this takes place, the film goes into more of a serious, suspense-drama mode than the more fun, light, comedic mood.
The entire concept of Pushing Tin was based on a magazine article about an air traffic controller. It was neat to see such an interesting insight to this overlooked job. It's not often I walk away from a film knowing a lot more about a subject than I did to begin with. The 3-D scenes that the film goes into makes the concept of air traffic controlling seem pretty simple. I thought this was very cleverly done.
The writing in Pushing Tin is absolutely horrible. There are so many scenes that don't serve any purpose at all to the overall film. At least twenty minutes of footage could have been cut from the film. If scenes like the pointless seven or eight-minute bomb scene were cut, the film would have been much better. Due to the amount of pointless scenes, the film dragged a lot. The running time is only two hours and hour minutes, but yet it seems like it was three hours long.
Other than the writing, everything is okay in the film. The sound really added a lot to the film. The sounds of airplanes send off vibrations that you can feel. The filmmakers turned down the sound at the right times and pumped it up right when it was perfect to do so.
The strongest part in the film without a doubt was the outstanding performances. John Cusack, who has not been seen in a leading role since 1997's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, gives the best performance I have ever sen him give. He got to go a lot of places with this character, and he took full advantage of that. Billy Bob Thornton is good in Pushing Tin, but it is a step down from the wonderful flick, A Simple Plan. (A-) Thornton's character just kind of sat there silent for the majority of the film, and it would have been nice to hear some more from him. Also taking a step down is Cate Blanchett, who perfected her role in the masterpiece Elizabeth. (A+) She is very good here as well, but she doesn't get a lot of room to develop her character too much. Angelina Jolie, who was last seen in another one of 1998's best, Playing by Heart (A-), pretty much plays the same role as she did in Playing by Heart. We didn't get to se her as much though, which was a disappointment.
The Bottom Line- The writer of this could have been great film were "pushing" it a little bit.
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