 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 | 🎙️ EPISODE 470: 05.19.22 Starting in 2020, I decided to watch & review the entire Nicolas Cage filmography in alphabetical order. This is 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 𝔬𝔣 ℭ𝔞𝔤𝔢 – Chapter 18*. This movie is great, but I think I'm gonna take a Chapter off from doing my usual plot breakdown recap. Here's the story in three sentences: Cage, an Army Ranger vet, gets 7-10 years for a pretty bullshit manslaughter case where he was defending his pregnant wife and he's finally ready for his release after serving his time with diabetic cellmate Bubba from Forrest Gump. Cage and Bubba are 'hitching a ride' on a new super-max prisoner transport plane designed by John Cusack that is set to move the worst criminals in America to a a new super-max prison. The criminals led by mastermind John Malkovich lead a revolt but are thwarted in the end by good guy Cage who primarily sticks around to make sure his friend Bubba has a needle to inject his insulin and avoid a diabetic coma. |
After sitting with it for a few more days, I think the presence of the jokes is really bad and they probably exist as the collateral damage/price of going business for having three black actors in prominent roles (Ving Rhames, Dave Chappelle and Mykelti Williamson). And that sucks. There isn't a whole hell of a lot to this movie. You could've easily made it without any these 'jokes'...
(NOTE: I probably missed a few instances.) And look, I'm not saying we retroactively cancel Con Air. I'm not offended by this in the slightest. It just feels odd seeing a film like this in 2022 and not mentioning, that's all.
Because otherwise there's a lot to like here. It's a true "turn off your brain" action flick and I can appreciate that, especially given the array of practical effects, real planes and vehicles and explosions, and the charmingly bad though spare moments of green screen stuff/CGI. I mean they throw Dave Chappelle's wax corpse off the plane and it lands on the car of Major Briggs from Twin Peaks...
And there is an openly trans character in this?? ....
The best bit of FX IMO...
And let's not forget the "bunny in the box" scene...
This movie is a 10/10 when it just leans into the extreme action and lays off the bad dialogue, which it does for almost the entire final stretch culminating in a fight on a firetruck speeding down the longest tunnel ever constructed. It also has a murderer's row of a supporting cast and character actors which make even the cringiest moments somewhat palatable. And sure Cage is good too. It's probably a more restrained performance than you remember; his bad Southern accent aside, he is in full noble hero mode here and he pulls it off. This is the middle movie in an insane two-year run that also including The Rock (1996) and Face/Off (also 1997). Of the three, this one definitely alluded me (I'm not even sure I ever saw it before!). But I have fond memories of the other two and I can't wait to rewatch and review them. In due time.
THE VERDICT: 8 CAGES OUT OF 10 • CLICK HERE for all 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 𝔬𝔣 ℭ𝔞𝔤𝔢 Chapters + Ongoing Rankings.
CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 469B - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 471A ⫸
⫷ EPISODE 469B - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 471A ⫸
Con Air is a 1997 American action thriller film directed by Simon West and starring Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Malkovich. Written by Scott Rosenberg and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the film centers on a prison break aboard a Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System aircraft, nicknamed "con air." It features Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, Colm Meaney, Mykelti Williamson, Dave Chappelle, Rachel Ticotin, Danny Trejo, and Monica Potter in supporting roles. It was released on June 6, 1997.
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