On C List of Movie Reviews
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Con Air (1997)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
4/04, 3/20
3/20:
Carrying on the bombastic style that's been initiated by Michael Bay in
The Rock, Con Air is of the popcorn junk
kind that forces me to leave my brain at the door.
It was a stupid movie back then, and it's still a stupid movie today. Yet Con Air is somewhat entertaining,
thanks to the nice collection of big-name actors such as Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich who has the best lines (yet what the
heck is he doing in this?), Ving Rhames, and Danny Trejo although I can do without John Cusack and Dave Chappelle who's
absolutely unfunny and obnoxious.
The CGI is the worst part in spite of the decent editing. It's been a stream of unrealistic moments, and there's no way
that anyone can survive the explosions or the daredevil stunts. At the same time, there's a loss of credibility in the logic
department.
Take one scene: a plane tows DEA agent Duncan Malloy's 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Roadster maybe a half mile away from where he
and Larkin are standing, and the car is suddenly dropped right by their feet. Another is when the guards discovered a bunch of
artifacts about the planned escape behind a fake brick in Cyrus the Virus' prison cell, but why didn't he burn them before
his departure? How it went down in Las Vegas is sheer stupidity. Shooting the plane down over the desert landscape
will have been justified in hindsight.
At the beginning, Cameron Poe is given ten years for manslaughter. Really, what he did can be justified in the name of self defense, and
he shouldn't have been tried in the first place, let alone be found guilty. It's the most difficult premise to swallow.
Later on, the planted DEA agent decides to pull out his gun at the worst time possible when he should've waited longer.
Garland Greene said, "Define irony: a bunch of idiots dancing around on a plane to a song made famous by a band that died in
a plane crash." No, they didn't...just a few members of Lynyrd Skynyrd but not the entire band. By the way, why am I supposed
to root for him? The sadist killed over thirty innocent people, and he looks cool because he's Steve Buscemi?
All in all, Con Air may be over the top, but it's not bad for the most part.