Review of Con Air (1997) by Ben S — 04 Feb 2014

Muscular action thriller from the canon of Jerry Bruckheimer starring Nic Cage as former golden boy Army Ranger Cameron Poe, who kills a man in a bar fight while defending his wife. Surviving his 7 year prison stretch with thoughts of seeing his daughter for the first time, Poe is released and chartered on a prison flight to take him home - but unbelievably the same plane is also being used to transport the country's most sadistic and violent criminals to a new high-tech facility. Led by psychotic inmate Cyrus 'The Virus' (John Malkovich) the convicts have little trouble commandeering the flight and making their bid for freedom, leaving Poe - with the assistance of U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin (John Cusack) on the ground - as the only hope of reclaiming the plane and saving the lives of the officers on board.

By virtue of a restrictive setting Con Air puts a lively cast of ensemble characters and a razor sharp script at its centre, and is all the more enjoyable for it. Events never become too convoluted: Poe the gold hearted reformed family man just wants to get home in time for his daughter's birthday, and in order to do so must stop the vicious dudes on the plane. And that's basically it. Big overblown performances from Cage and Malkovich steal the show - and they appear to be in a constant battle of who can appear the most manic. Even in a generic hero role such as this, Cage is able to make it his own with his trademark offbeat eccentricities and delivery.

The dialogue is as over the top as the performances and rammed with fantastically quotable one-liners. Although not overtly an action-comedy it never comes close to taking itself seriously ("Put the bunny back in the box!") and buzzes with humour and ridiculousness, so even when the action sequences take a back seat to the exposition, it remains sprightly and enjoyable. Speeding along at a rapid pace it never suffers from the sluggish awkwardness that afflicts so many other actioners, and is continually both thrilling and joyful. Conforming to the tropes of the genre, and revelling in its own absurdity, Con Air is pure unabashed fun that couldn't be more formulaic. But with Cage's presence and a pared back narrative it's more successful - and more bizarre - than the usual genre fare.