Retro Film Review: Con Air (1997)

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Jerry Bruckheimmer is one of the most successful producers in Hollywood today, but less than a decade ago many doubted that he could extract himself from the shadow of Don Simpson, his legendary partner. Con Air, 1997 action film directed by Simon West, was the first film that Bruckheimmer could claim as undoubtedly his own, and one year before Armageddon many saw it as a definite proof that Bruckheimmer didn't have much of a future.

The plot of Con Air might seem rather complicated for this sort of film, but such complications were necessary for the basic premise to have an iota of believability. It begins when Cameron Poe (played by Nicolas Cage), US Army Ranger and decorated Gulf War veteran, defends his wife and unborn child from couple of drunks in a bar. One of drunks gets killed and Poe later gets long prison sentence for manslaughter. After seven years, he is paroled and before being formally released, he must board US Marshalls Service plane. On this flight the plane happens to carry America's worst killers, rapists, drug dealers and terrorists - and all those talents are going to be let loose when prisoners manage to overtake the guards and take control of the plane. While prisoners' leader, psychopathic Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom (played by John Malkovich), redirects plane to new location, Cameron Poe pretends to help him in order to thwart his plans and save innocent lives.

It is more than obvious that Bruckheimmer tried to repeat successful formula of The Rock - loud soundtrack, plenty of chases, explosions, macho dialogues - in this film. Effort failed because he had forgotten another important ingredient - "buddy buddy" dynamic between Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery. Here Cage has to settle with John Cusack, overqualified actor who, on the other hand, looks quite uncomfortable in one-dimensional role of sympathetic US Marshall. That seems to be the problem with the rest of cast – Steve Buscemi, whose character of prolific serial killer seems to belong to some other film, is just the most obvious example. Apart from poor characterisation, the film also suffers from bad directing. This was feature film debut for Simon West, Britsh music video specialist, and his lack of experience reflects in actions scenes that are poorly edited and thus made unattractive despite seemingly spectacular content. The worst example comes at the end, with the plane landing on the streets of Las Vegas - the last big action scene in the film is anti-climactic and downright boring. Some of the recent events - which also featured huge planes hitting major urban areas – would also reflect poorly on this film's reputation. Jerry Bruckheimmer should be thankful for modern audience's short attention-span.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on August 25th 2003)