Cringe at Nick Cage's accent (& hair) but watch for John Cusack

Rating: 7/10 (22 July 2002)

Con Air is basically your standard popcorn flick - lots of explosions, bad-guys with really silly names (Cyrus the Virus, Billy Bedlam, Diamond Dog etc...) and just enough plot to get you to the next special effect.
What makes this film better than average is the quality of its cast. Accent aside, Cage is fine as paroled con, Cameron Poe (who, of course, had a perfectly good excuse for killing someone and isn't a bad guy at all), but he is overshadowed by John's Cusack & Malkovich.
Malkovich seems to relish playing Cyrus Grissom - the criminally insane sociopath who masterminds the capture of the plane - with an over-the-top flair that is both comic & chilling by turns while Cusack steals the show as U.S. Marshall Vince Larkin, who is on the ground struggling to contain the situation and keep his superiors from blowing the plane to bits (the exchanges between him and DEA agent Duncan Malloy (Colm Meaney) are particularly note-worthy).
The finale is as over-the-top as you would expect from a Jerry Bruckhemimer production, cramming the maximum possible mayhem into the smallest possible time as the plane crash-lands on the Las Vegas strip, followed by a high speed chase through the city.
Con Air doesn't pretend to be anything other than another fairly mindless action film and, if you watch it with that in mind, you won't be disappointed as (after a slightly slow start which sets up the reason for Cage being in prison) the action doesn't stop and the humour is better than average.
My advice is watch this with friends & a plentiful supply of alcohol for an enjoyably pointless evening in.
Rating: 7/10