A pure thrill ride from start to finish!!

Rating: 9/10 (28 March 2002)

Nicholas Cage has proven himself as an action star in my mind. What he gives you, that you won't get from people like Arnie and Van Damme etc, is the ability to convincingly play a character with more than two dimensions, he can easily do roles in action films with his eyes closed as the characters do not require to much stretching. Of course when it comes to the action itself he has been doubled too much for my liking. Although he was pretty good in Con Air it must be said, Cage was in great shape in this movie. He has been in three classic action films. This, Face Off and the Rock. In The Rock and Face Off he was doubled annoyingly every second, but he is more involved in this film. Basically Con Air is your typicle macho man action flick, full of one-liners and angry stares but what sets this apart is the amazing energy produced by the direction, set pieces and the standard of actors you don't usually get in this genre. Nic Cage is good although his accent is a little difficult to take in at times, he gets it spot on but it just doesn't suit him. Also John Cusack is in great form as an FBI agent who is responsible for the plane that subsequantly becomes hi-jacked and terrorist controlled. As for the villiansof the piece, well Ving Rhames stars as Diamond Dog and is very good and John Malkovich excels as lead baddie Cyrus the Virus (all the bad guys have stupid names). This film has many of the stupid cliches of the action genre but the amazing action sequences, quality score and the stars make this a must see. The plot may be thin but do we really care in an action flick. Overall this is a great flick, and I really appreciate those few action flicks that employ top actors to add something in that department. Some of the scenes really raise the excitment levels pretty high. 9/10