Simplistic and Infantile

Rating: 4/10 (31 July 2003)

'Con Air' is an exploration of the untold depths into which an action film can sink when guided solely by a lust for revenues. Nicolas Cage is an exemplary inmate just released and on his way home, who finds himself aboard a prisoner transportation airplane hijacked by a group of notorious convicts. Depressingly one-dimensional and sadistic, the film is a cluttered patchwork of often unrelated action scenes, centered around miserable primordial notions of good (Cage) and evil (everyone else onboard the plane, with the possible exception of a black diabetic inmate). Most viewers over the age of twelve will rapidly lose interest following the introductory procession of stereotypical villainous characters -the latter representing the worst fears of American suburbia, and featuring Latino drug barons, deranged murderers, compulsive rapists, serial killers and, of course, black supremacists. At some random point toward the end, there is a botched attempt to conceal the film's barrenness behind a deranged display of chaotic blasts caused by the airplane's landing in downtown Las Vegas. Yet even this nauseating waste of production funds on a meaningless vision of urban mayhem fails to stir the film's overbearing numbness. Following the crash, the audience is left with a number of bizarre segments offering an unbefitting comical twist to a truly laughable film.