Nicholas Cage won an Academy Award for ‘Best Actor in a Leading Role’ for a film portraying a tortured man battling his demons. This is not that film. That was the heartbreaking “Leaving Las Vegas.” This is “Con Air” (1997), and its plot tells you all you need to know about it: a retired Army Ranger gets into a bar brawl with a couple of drunken hoodlums, ends up killing one of them and is sentenced to 7 years hard time. At his parole, he is to be transported home on a police mega plane called ‘The Jailbird,’ which will also be transporting a bevy of felons to a high security prison. The plane gets taken over by the cons. Of course there’s a lot more, but to set the stage, really isn’t necessary. The film was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (“Armageddon,” “The Rock”) and you know just want to expect.
Cage plays a man named Cameron Poe, a basically good ‘ol southern boy who gets mixed up in the wrong place at the wrong time. He kills a man who pulls a knife on him with with well-timed upward palm strike to the nose. I will state that it is utterly incredulous that a man, even with military training whose hands are “deadly weapons” would be sentenced to jail for using such deadly weapons in a knife fight to defend himself. Note: this movie is 1h 55 minutes of suspension of disbelief, and I will not bring up the film’s massive plot discrepancies again. The film isn’t deep, but entertains, which is the reason one goes to see these types of movies to begin with.
“Con Air” assembles an extremely likable, motley crew cast, all caricatures of the types of people one expects to see in the film’s contrived situation. In addition to Cage we have John Cusack, playing a U.S. Marshall named Larkin who understands criminals need to be jailed but is will to place part of the blame on society, refusing to refer to them as ‘monsters.’ Then there’s “Star Trek” alum Colm Meany playing a arrogant DEA agent trying to bring down a drug trafficker on the flight “before the FBI gets the jurisdiction and the glory.”
And the criminals? Oh, we have “Pulp Fiction” favorite Vingh Rhames playing a black militant terrorist named ‘Diamond Dog,’ Nick Chinlund playing a convict named ‘Billy Bedlam’ whose wife cheated on him; he left her alone, but drove four towns over and “killed her mother, her father, her brothers, her sisters, and even her dog.” Throw in a serial rapist (Danny Trejo), known as Johnny 23 (named after the amount of women he’s raped), Dave Chappelle as a small time drug dealer, Steve Buscemi as a serial killer named the ‘Marietta Mangler, and a ringleader named ‘Cyrus the Virus’ Grissom, played by the extremely talented John Malkovich, and the cast is rounded out.
What works about “Con Air” is the way this plane “with every freak and creep in the universe” is pitted against Poe, a free man, who slips back into his Ranger role but who must remain undercover as he attempts to subvert these madmen. He does this in various ways such as covering his tracks, thinking quick on his feet, and resorting to murder when nothing else works. He’s trying desperately to get home to his wife (Monica Potter in a sweet performance) and daughter, but can’t leave the prison’s guards or his jail-mate friend Baby-O (“Forest Gump’s” Mykelti Williamson) behind.
The movie fills in the plot with a lot infighting between the plane’s inmates (with a side plot involving a Colombian drug lord) and between Cusack and Meany, which propel the drama and set up its high octane ending which – true to Bruckheimer’s resume – is filled with breakneck action, gun fire, and explosions aplenty.
The acting is also apt, with Cage delivering an adequate answer to an action hero, Cusack pleasing as a morally intact Marshall, and Rhames, Buscemi, and Chinlund entertaining along the way. The best performance in the film easily belongs to Malkovich who’s Cyrus nails the humor, menace, and terror of his character with eery precision.
All in all, “Con Air” is just a fun time at the movies. With humor, action, and non-stop hijinks, it’s perfect as another entry into yet another Man Movie May.
– by Mark Ziobro
