My favorite part of ConAir was the flying car. Seems that the DEA's Agent in Charge had little else on his mind except getting home to drive his car. That's how he struck me after a dozen different attempts to shoot down the plane in ConAir.
Nicolas Cage revives his southern accent from Raising Arizona in this movie that takes "the cons nightmares are made of" and places them on the same plane as Cage. His character is, of course, an ex-Ranger who has been hijacked into prison on a trumped up deal.
The plot is a bit far-fetched, both in how Cage gets sent to prison, and in how the plane gets hijacked. To me, the security used on these "hardened" worst of the worst criminals is a bit lax. Except for the Hannibal Lechter wannabe, Garden Green. Of course, if the security on the plane hadn't been so lax, there would have been no movie.
Nicolas Cage manages to play a joke of a role as if he were totally serious, his specialty. John Cusack, as the US Marshall in charge of all this madness, is good as well. The rest of the cast, let's just say they collected their paychecks.
ConAir stretched the limits of believability in every way. First, we have to buy that someone would be lax enough to miss the tools that the cons have brought onto the plane. Then, we're told that someone is stupid enough to put all these PROVEN bad-guys on a plane together. Then, we're asked to believe that the US Marshall's are so lame-brained as to be taken over by a plane full of cons. Next up, is believing that compassion is still alive and well after the cons take over the plane, kill a few guards, and blow up a prison cell. To me, this all stretches the limits of believability too far.
Once the plane is on the ground for the first time, we're told that the police and military are too stupid to see an obvious trap. <Yawn> By this time, I had decided that the movie was about an hour too long. Tons of fighting later, the plane takes off again, after being buried in sand! Wow, that's some plane!
To make a long review short, I watched this movie to see Nicolas Cage and John Cusack. The two of them were worth watching, the rest of the movie was a farce. I kept waiting for a "Naked Gun" style wink at the viewer, but, it never came. I assume that the producers thought they were making a serious movie, but, I laughed a lot.
There is one really cool line in the movie. Gardner says to Cage's character, Poe, "Define Irony. Irony is flying in a plane, listening to a song made famous by a band who died in a plane crash." Sweet Home Alabama, by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Watch this movie if you are a die-hard Cage fan, or, if you really want to see some nice explosions. Otherwise, save your video rental money.
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