If you're one of those guys who take a movie like Con Air so seriously, then you need to pull the stick out of your butt and just stare blankly at the screen for the next two hours. Con Air is precisely the kind of cornball fare that rolls into movie theaters every year with a low brow concept and big stars in impressive enough packaging that you can seriously enjoy it for what it is. But I can guarantee you the artsy twentysomething who dwells in coffeehouses and worships Kerouac while wearing designer labels, is not going to enjoy Con Air. Con Air is the kind of movie critics like to point out as to what's wrong with the American movie system. I myself would say the same thing but you know what?

It's supposed to be a big, dumb, fun, loud action movie and I'll say that's all right. I remember back in my youth when I had the movie poster plastered on my college dorm room, my effeminate theater major roommate literally paused upon seeing this poster, and I knew by this stolid reaction that clearly this wasn't his kind of movie...which is okay because this isn't a lot of people's kinds of movies. Con Air isn't for a Manhattan art professor or a San Francisco film nerd. This isn't a movie you're going to see play at the Metropolitan Museum of Art either. Con Air is the kind of movie you'll see in a megaplex, surrounded by a bunch of guys whose professions require them to be on construction sites or behind a deli counter. It's for every teenage boy looking for an escape in a couple hours. It's the kind of antidote a guilt free, occasional moviegoer will go for if pressed between a movie like Con Air or My Best Friend's Wedding.

Con Air concerns a post-Oscar winner Nicolas Cage as hero Cameron Poe, a just paroled ex-con now trying to save the day from a bunch of psychopathic criminals, who have taken over their prison transport plane. All of this is orchestrated by the group's clearly twisted leader (John Malkovich in pure paycheck mode). Not making this any easier is that this particular band of psychos consists of the worst kind. From a self-righteous black man who may have taken the Black Panther cause far too seriously (read: murderously) as played by Ving Rhames or a quiet Hannibal Lecter-esque serial killer (Steve Buscemi) who terrifies even the worst of the convicts, among them Johnny 23 (Danny Trejo, perhaps the only actor whose actually done hard time), a serial rapist. While on the ground, a U.S. Marshal (John Cusack, also in paycheck mode) is trying to convince his superiors that Poe is the guy who will save the day, all while trying to resolve the situation.

There's much about Con Air to despise. But as evident by the many critics who roasted this movie upon it's release, there's not much for a surprise. Seriously, I think the only positive Jerry Bruckheimer production that involved car crashes and spectacular explosions, that actually GOT good revies was The Rock. Because if you'll note with many of director Michael Bay's other movies, the critics roast the guy like a suckling pig. Con Air has probably been described in so many words as the death of film, the dark future, the Darth Vader-equivalent of the Hollywood machine. Clearly whatever critic wrote these similarities has never really watched enough action to comprehend the concept.

Yes, Con Air is cheesy. It's full blown cheesy. It's so cheesy that one seems to forget that Nicolas Cage was at one time, a serious actor. By the way, that of course refers to when Cage still made respectable films like Leaving Las Vegas and Moonstruck. He's now the guy who went slumming in Ghost Rider, Snake Eyes and gasp, The Wicker Man. Cage has obviously got his priorities in the marketplace than he does the quality of his work (excepting Adaptation). But that's not to say that Cage imbues a little dignity into what is a cardboard role. Cameron Poe could be played by anybody, but it's played by Nicolas Cage, who provides a likable southern drawl to his character, the good ole boy who tries to make things right. I think of Cameron Poe as one of the few characters that Cage hasn't gone completely overboard in later years. Those who can't think of such a thing, look at Cage's later roles in Face/Off and Ghost Rider in which Cage compensates for restraint by melodrama.

Aside, Con Air is not for the faint of heart but for the light of mind. It's a big, dumb, loud summer blockbuster that has all the workings of a movie totally made to entertain you and do nothing more. Normally I might point out the discrepancies that would accompany a movie like Con Air, but in a way, I really can't. It's just one of those movies that knows where it's priorities are, without fooling the audience for once.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age