CON AIR
A film review by Ted Prigge
Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: Simon West Writer: Scott Rosenberg Starring: Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich, John Cusack, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Dave Chappelle, Colm Meaney, Mykelti Williamson, Danny Trejo, Rachel Ticotin
We all know the mother of all mindless action pics is NOT "Speed," but the great "Die Hard." Not the sequels, the first one. It was fun, action-packed and had an outrageous plot, filled with an invincible, wise-cracking hero was shot several times, beaten up by Germans, and still lived to get in the limo with his ex-estranged wife. Not that it was totally mindless. It had some logic to it. But most of all it was fun.
Most films in this little sub-genre (including "Speed," "Passenger 57," and "Under Siege" - "Executive Decision" doesn't belong her, it was too believable and thoughtful and had little physical action) pretty much blow (I'm sure "Speed 2" is gonna suck). But "Con Air" gets that right pitch of fun-filled action with huge lapses in logic and a great, witty screenplay from Scott Rosenberg (of indie fame - "Beautiful Girls" and "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead). He makes it so fun to listen to them shoot out one-liners that when there are long lapses in action, it's just a thrill to watch them shoot them out - not that the dialogue's anywhere near that of Tarantino, they're in totally different sub-genres.
This would be crap if it weren't for the direction of Simon West, a newcomer, who handles the film with the exact approach it needs. The film KNOWS it's stupid and moronic, and it plays that up in a gleeful way. He creates wonderfully silly action sequences that had me laughing. One scene in particular is when the star, Nic Cage, fights a convict to the death in the hull of the plane when he's found out who he is. He first tells the con to put down the bunny he bought for his daughter who he is going to see later on, but the con doesn't put it down. They fight, Nic kills him and then says "Why didn't he put down the bunny?" or something like that. Another shot that is hysterical is after the cool plane crash at the end, the cops are in there searching for survivors and find this one guy who was handcuffed to a bar. The shot shows the guy dead, leaning against the wall with his arm still hanging from the handcuffs. They pull the corpse away and the arm still stands there unmoved. Clever shots like this make "Con Air" worth the admission.
The plot is hilariously ridiculous: a plane transpoting cons is taken over by the cons, led by the gleefully insane Cyrus the Virus (John Malkovich, in his best kind of roles, as wacky villains). But on the plane is Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage) who served 8 years in a pennitentiary for killing man in self defense while protecting his pregnant wife. He has never seen his little girl since he didn't want her to see him around all these mean convicts and he is looking forward to getting home. So he wants to use his military training to try to stop the cons from escaping to Mexico and killing all the innocent guards.
Among the cons, other than Cyrus, are: Diamond Dog (Ving Rhames), who is a rascist black militant who wrote a popular book and could get on Geraldo if he wanted to; Johnny 23 (Danny Trejo), a rapist with a flower tatoo for every woman he's raped ("I'd be Johnny 600 if they knew the whole truth!") and has his eye set on the female guard (Rachel Ticotin); and Garland Greene, "The Marietta Mangler" (indie uber-god Steve Buscemi), who is a Hannibal Lector-esque man who theorizes that he's not crazy but those of us who work for 55 years, go into retirement and wind up in a nursing home are the true crazy ones. Also on board is Cameron's cell-mate (Mykelti Williamson, completing the whole "Forrest Gump" parody since Cameron's from Alabama), who needs his shot of insulin or he'll die...but all the needles are broken.
Above all this is Nicolas Cage who, when I first heard about it, seemed dreadfully miscast. He's an Oscar winner who turned to big-budget action pics after his "Leaving Las Vegas" role, which he did perfectly. But I'm glad he's picked good action pics so far. So great as the dorky guy in "The Rock," he at first seems awkward as a muscle-bound action hero who beats up deadly convicts and runs from fireballs. But he's so convincing that this soon disappears. He handles Cameron's character with style and makes him a soft-spoken man with a lot going on inside. But his hick accent kinda drifts into the hick parody of his H.I. character in the Coen Brothers' awesome "Raising Arizona."
Also great is John Cusack, who usually doesn't do this kind of fare, but he signed up because of the cast and the cool script. He's not wasted but he has an expendable character. He makes the most of it, playing what was sort of like Nicolas Cage's role in "The Rock." He's no action actor, but he does do a great run scene you'll dig. And brit actor Colm Meaney is one hell of a great jerk, with his real name serving as a nice little joke. (hah hah - you don't have to laugh, it was a bad joke, I know)
And John Malkovich is gerat as the main villain. He commands the film nicely and steals every scene he's in.
The thing to admire from "Con Air" is it doesn't even attempt to oust "Die Hard" from its throne, but puts some nice twists on an old sub genre. I reccomend this to anyone who likes good dumb action pics. It's certainly one hell of a ride, albeit a stupid one.
MY RATING (out of 5): ***
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