Action movies are like junk food. They are unhealthy and enjoyable. Con Air has nasty characters played well by top actors. Therefore it’s a junk food experience.
Nicolas Cage is Cameron Poe who is an army veteran imprisoned for killing a man in self-defense. After finishing the sentence, he gets ready to see his wife and young daughter (the latter for the first time). He is transported on a prisoner plane with criminals named Cyrus ‘The Virus’, Nathan “Diamond Dog”, Earl “Swamp Thing”, Joe “Pinball, and Garland “The Marietta Mangler”. But the criminals plan to take over the plane and fly to South America. Thus Poe finds himself in a position of stopping them and being heroic.
The movie includes big action scenes like propane tank explosions, motorcycle chases, and a plane crash on a Las Vegas casino. But the big draw would be the performances by the main cast. Nicolas Cage gives a performance with a southern accent. When he recites “why didn’t you put the bunny back in the box?”, we are fascinated by the Oscar winners commitment to the line. John Malcovich is despicable as the Cyrus who speaks with morbid clarity in enunciating threats “if you tell them what i said, the next sound you hear will be the flies buzzing around your rotting corpse”. The rest of the criminals include Ving Rhames, John Cusack, Colm Meaney, and Steve Buscemi in strangely good performances.
Therefore this is a ridiculous movie by Simon West and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Both have continued to make these kinds of movies about preposterous situations. But as explained earlier, some movies are like junk food. And Con Air is a meal that doesn’t make the viewer any healthier and yet the taste can be appreciated.
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