By Geno McGahee
In 1996, Nicolas Cage began to be taken seriously as an action hero with his hit movie “THE ROCK.” One year later, CON AIR was unleashed with an all-star cast, huge action sequences and a great cage performance. This film solidified Cage as an action star.
Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage) is a military man with a very bad southern accent and he is returning to be with his wife, Tricia (Monica Potter), but the bad rednecks at the bar she works at are starting trouble. Cage (I will refer to him as Cage from this point on) doesn’t deal with harassment well and when they follow him out to his car and insult him and his wife, he takes them on. The end result is one dead redneck and prison time for Cage.
For nearly ten years, Cage sits in prison, but he remains upbeat. Perhaps he found romance. If he did, he is leaving it behind to be released and reunite with his wife and daughter. Unfortunately, he is hitching a ride on Con Air, which is packed with all sorts of really bad guys. Johnny 23 (Danny Trejo) is a serial rapist. I like how Trejo is always getting the positive roles in film. Diamond Dog (Ving Rhames) is a killer that has found fame outside of the bars with a book he wrote. Pinball (Dave Chappelle) is a junkie, Garland Greene (Steve Buscemi) is a serial killer, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS style, Swamp Thing (M.C. Gainey) is a tough SOB that can fly the plane and they are all led by Cyrus the Virus (John Malkovich). As I said, this is an all-star cast. They packed this film with the best of the best of 90’s action.
Cyrus and the bad guys take over the plane and the only hope for the safety of some of the crew and the people on the ground is none other than Nicolas Cage. On top of fighting the bad guys, he has to deal with a government prick, Malloy (Colm Meaney), who wants to shoot it out of the sky. Vince Larkin (John Cusack) is the only support he has on the ground and Cusack brings his A game of overacting to this great film.
The amount of great personalities and ridiculous characters mixed with nonstop explosive action makes CON AIR incredibly entertaining. Amazingly, Nicolas Cage seems reserved in this one. Perhaps he was focusing too much on maintaining his terrible accent…well, it was so bad it was good.
Just when you think that they can’t push this film into absurdity any more, they bring it to Las Vegas in grand style. They crash the airplane onto the strip, leading to a chase through casinos on motorcycles and dueling fire engines. Explosions, car chases, and more….CON AIR is amazing. I cannot recommend this movie enough.
Nicolas Cage proves his greatness in CON AIR and had a great villain to fight in Malkovich, who, may I add, can do a great bad accent too. In ROUNDERS, he had a terrible Russian accent. I loved it. I love this movie. Good job Cage. You knocked this one out of the park.
Rating: 8/10
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