The Academy-Award Nominated Movie, Con Air

Rating: 6/10 (30 August 2005)

If you're like me, the summary phrase above probably made you balk a bit. And then you realized something like 'ha ha, it's for like makeup or whatever' )Sound Editing, I believe). But that's kind of my gut reaction to this movie - basically a good ride (I remember seeing it a couple times in the cinema), but, wow, not anything that should ever be referenced as 'good'.
Scenery-chewing (in a good way) by John Malkovich, Ving Rhames and Steve Buscemi give this movie what entertainment value it has. All three ham up their performances with the director's (and the audience's) blessing, and clearly had a lot of fun doing this. I can't blame them, as it probably was.
Nicholas Cage competes strongly with Dick Van Dyke in the 'Worst On-Screen Accent of All Time' category, with an Alabama drawl that makes me feel like someone's working my cerebellum with a cheese-grater.
John Cusack is slapped in the background, even during scenes in which he's talking. His entire performance is straight-to-cable, and is possibly the biggest downer - we all know he (unlike Cage) could be doing a lot better.
The first ten minutes of the movie are swallowed by a gaping plot-hole, in order to get Nick Cage ('a really good guy, with some lethal training') aboard Con Air, surrounded by all the evil in the universe. Clearly not comfortable with making him an anti-hero (which would have been infinitely preferable), we're instead stuck watching a pre-credit buildup that stretches one's benign disbelief to the breaking point.
On the positive side, it gets a bonus point for having rocket launchers. I'm easy.
6/10. I'd buy the DVD on eBay, but not pause it while I'm cooking dinner.