Not bad for a Bruckheimer production.

Rating: 7/10 (17 July 2001)

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Leave it to the destructive clutches of Jerry Bruckheimer to botch even the role of a great actor like Nicholas Cage. Con Air is a very entertaining action film about a bunch of hard criminals who hijack an airplane that is transporting them, and their subsequent efforts to solidify their escape. Nicholas Cage plays the role of Cameron Poe, the guy who was serving time for a crime of self defense, who is so caring that it's cheesy, and who has the most ridiculous fake accent in recent film history, at least until Kevin Costner's fake accent in Thirteen Days. The thing that becomes important is that Poe is on his way home, his time is up, and once the plane reaches its destination, he'll be a free man. Most of the suspense in the film is derived from the fact that he remains on the plane (after having passed up an easy chance to get off) so that he can be the man on the inside for the police, but also (and more importantly) so he can make sure that the real bad guys on the plane don't do too much damage to the plane's crew, male and female alike, as well as to some of the already injured criminals.
Nicholas Cage does a good enough job as Cameron Poe, except for that damn accent and the weak script, but as far as acting quality, he is far from the most noteworthy actor in the film. John Malkovich is spectacular as the cold-blooded Cyrus `The Virus' Grissom, and he very effectively takes on the leadership position of the remaining criminals on board the plane. One of the most despicable criminals on the plane is known as `Johnny 23,' named for the number of women that he has raped, played with satisfactory gruesomeness by Danny Trejo, a Quentin Tarantino veteran. Steve Buscemi plays a small role as Garland Greene, who is wheeled onto the plane tied down in true Hannibal Lecter form, and who is one of the quieter and less disruptive criminals on the plane. John Cusack is the cop desperately trying to get back in control of the plane from the ground. He is the one who first figures out that Poe may be his man on the inside.
(spoilers) The action in the film is very well presented and there is clearly no shortage of it. There are excellent gunfight scenes as well as plenty of airborne mayhem, not to mention that crash landing down the strip in Las Vegas at the end of the film. This particular scene was not as well done as many of the other scenes in the film, but it was fun to watch a plane that size crashing down such a large street.
There are, however, several things wrong with the film. Of course, all films have SOMETHING wring with them, but some of the things here were so bad that they just can't be excused. Poe's accent, for one thing, was absolutely unnecessary and did nothing but cut the quality of Nicholas Cage's otherwise good performance in half. Also, sure he was the good guy, but at some points, namely where he is telling Baby-O O'Dell (what a name, by the way), played by Mykelti Williamson of Forrest Gump fame, that he will not let him die, that he's going to be okay, etc. It's nice to see that he cares, but sometimes it gets a little too cheesy.
And, of course, the worst thing in the entire film, there is a scene in the film where Poe drops the body of a guard out the back of the plane, writing a note on the guard's shirt for the police. The body falls though the air and lands on the hood of a car at an intersection between skyscrapers in a big city. A policeman later says that the body landed on the hood of a car in Fresno. I'm not picking this apart just because I've lived in Fresno, but I have to point out that nothing in Fresno looks even CLOSE to that huge city that the body fell into. I'm complaining more about the fact that they must have done no research whatsoever for this movie if they were able to get something that easy to find out about totally wrong.

Another thing worth complaining about is the way that the script-writers thought that they would do something cute (and they weren't exactly doing a bang-up job up to that point) and have Garland Greene gambling at the end, having escaped from the wreckage undetected and gotten away pretty clean. Hey, that's pretty funny guys, but let's all keep in mind that this is the same guy that killed some little girl and then drove across three states wearing her head as a hat. That's not exactly the kind of person that we want to see go free at the end of the movie.
On the other hand, Con Air does manage to escape the almost predestined fate of being some hugely elaborate Hollywood film with wooden characters and a dumbass plot that is so common from Bruckheimer productions (see Armageddon, Gone In 60 Seconds, The Rock, Coyote Ugly, Pearl Harbor, etc.). While not an award winning film in any way, Con Air remains a satisfactory action film that is worth a look.