Formula Action works this time

Rating: 6/10 (28 June 2008)

Another formula action film again works well, this time for director Simon West. Plenty of carnage, gunplay, explosions and hair raising stunts are thrown in. All the right people die, and all our heroes collectively save the day.
The plot from Scott Rosenberg has enough in it to fuel proceedings, allowing you to follow the occasionally implausible script with ease, while never really making you care about the goings on. "Con Air" is cleverly peopled with some complex (or diverse at least) criminal types who help raise the level of entertainment.
John Malkovich is enjoyable as always playing the malevolent ringleader "Cyrus the Virus", Ving Rhames likewise as protégé "Diamond Dog". Steve Buscemi takes the prize as the strangest of the lot though, playing a mentally ill psycho. Nicholas Cage fills in the space as everyman hero (often victim) Cameron Po, John Cusack is the Fed pursuing the gang, and the support cast includes Rachel Ticotin, Colm Meaney and Mykelti Williamson.
Special visual and sound effects teams polish off this explosive, ultra slick nineties action flick.
Friday, August 8, 1997 - Greater Union Melbourne