Review of Con Air (1997) by James W — 04 Jan 2014

Simon West, director of The Expendables, clearly loves big cast and big set pieces, and this shows through most of his films, aside from The Mechanic and When A Stranger Calls. Con Air is enormous, with the likes of John Malkovich, Nicolas Cage, Ving Rhames, Danny Trejo, John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, pretty much the list goes on boasting casting gold.

All these action icons play tough as nail criminals, each with different sentences who board a plane for a penitentiary transfer, but ring leader Cyrus The Virus has other plans, and takes the plane and holds hostages.

The story does lack tension and there aren't many twists, but Director Simon West does very well giving his big cast plenty of screen time, diving into their twisted minds and broken psyches. What goes on down on the ground is where the real excitement takes place, especially in the final act where an airplane graveyard is essentially a playground for magnificent pyrotechnic spectacle, and Las Vegas gets wiped out in a speedy chase that pretty much obliterates the neon lit strip.

For Nicolas Cage fans this is gold, he does tend to overact his part as Cameron Poe but he is so fun to watch, it's just a shame he never does the wide eyed look although he does have one awesome catchphrase, "Put the bunny back in the box".