Con Air - This and ‘The Rock’ – hell yeah!

There are great films that will stand the test of time and then there are great – FUN – films. ‘Con Air’ is the latter.  It may never be committed to the world’s film archive as an example of classic Hollywood storytelling, but it deserves its place the annals of nineties action movies.  For, if you’re looking for one great action film that summed up the decade, then it’s ‘The Rock’ (or possibly ‘Speed’).  But if you’re looking for two or three, then Con Air should definitely be in there.

Where do I start?  Oh, yes, the star of the show.  And, when I say ‘star’ I don’t mean Nicholas Cage, but the explosions!  Everything (and very nearly everyone!) explodes around here.  Years before Michael Bay bored us to death with those pretty explosions Con Air did it first (and better!).  However, apart from the fireworks, it does boast a really impressive cast to blow things up.  Yes, Nick Cage is at the forefront of the carnage and he plays what is actually a bit of a tongue in cheek role straight as they come.  He’s ably assisted by John Cusack and – perhaps more importantly – John Malkovich, as he’s almost as important as the explosions.  The fact is, he’s possibly one of the greatest (and possibly under-rated) villains ever to grace the silver screen.  He’s absolutely fantastically bad, only slightly over the top, but never playing it so much that he becomes unbelievable or a cartoon of himself.  Now, it’s easy to give all the acting credit to Malkovich, but this ‘rogues gallery’ of an aeroplane is also packed full of colourful (and completely evil) other prisoners and a special mention to Steve Buscemi who isn’t in it for as long as some might wish, but is also fun to watch as a – not particularly subtle – Hannibal Lecter clone.

Anyway, the plot… our Nicholas Cage plays a U.S. ranger who returns from active duty to his pregnant wife, only to immediately he embroiled in a bar fight where he ends up killing his assailant.  Now mercy is spared here and he ends up being sent to prison for years.  Then, and all this is hardly a spoiler as it all happens in practically the first five minutes, when he does get released he only ends up on a prison plane flying across America that gets hijacked by the convicts.  Some guys just don’t get a break.

I think the reason I find Con Air so watchable is because it’s serious, but not dark – if that makes sense.  It kind of knows that it’s being a bit overblown and has some nice moments of humour thrown in there, but it’s part of that generation of action film that came because ‘uber-serious’ action films were forced upon us (‘Bourne’ franchise and Daniel Craig’s Bond – I’m looking at you).
I find it hard to believe that there are people out there who won’t find some enjoyment from this film.  Even if you’re not a massive fan of any of the stars or action movies in general, this is just such a daft, silly ride then surely you can’t help yourself from climbing aboard the plane and going along for a – very explosive – ride.

9/10 almost as perfect as The Godfather