Con Air
Con Air officially begins the summer season, meaning that the season of movies that defy logic begin. Summer has always been the worst season for film, but it's the best for Hollywood. Films of this season always rake in billions of money for Hollywood, yet they leave the audiences wanting more. In other words, the summer season is ironic. While we pay billions of dollars for films, and we make repeat viewings all summer long, we desparately want movies that not only entertain us, but make sense in doing so.
Con Air is just another one of those summer films. Now, I'm not stereotyping all summer films, because there are several that are actually very good. But the ones which make all the money usually aren't very good. The Rock, the predecessor to Con Air, was one of the few exceptions. It contained logic and plenty of macho action. However, Con Air itself, makes absolutely no sense. The plot is simple enough, but nothing is cohesive as scenes are just big excuses for overbudget action sequences. Most of the time, it's director Simon West's fault. His technique of directing seems more like an MTV music video than an actual film. But then again, he's use to directing 30-second commercials, so maybe it's Jerry Bruckheimer's fault for hiring West.
But whoever's fault it is, Con Air does have some entertaining and memorable elements. The first and best is the cast. While I'm not a fan of Nicolas Cage, I have to admit that he gets the job done and makes you care for him at the same time. John Malkovich is terrific as Cyrus the Virus, and his character is as lively and entertaining as they come. Ving Rhames is one of the few actors who can make you believe that he is a caring killer, which is very much a paradox. Steve Buscemi (Fargo) does the Hannibal Lechter character, but instead of copying it, he creates his own psychopath. His character also provides one of the more tense and scary moments in the film involving a little girl. John Cusack is, as always, very good (need I say more?). Yet, with this very talented cast, the style of filming is uneven and overshadows the performances given.
The first part of Con Air is quite entertaining, which shows about eight years in eight minutes. However, the logic of the film begins to fall apart on the airplane as the criminals manage to escape and take over the plane (with the help of stupid "good" characters). The filming of the escape sequence was so out-of-whack that I had no idea what was going on. It took me about ten minutes to figure out that they were breaking out. Maybe it was because I saw it on a huge screen and couldn't see a lot of the action, but I think it was just the choppiness and fast-paced cinematography. From this point on, logic is thrown off the plane and out of the picture. Action takes its place, and while that can be enough to make up for logic, it doesn't quite do so.
To give an example of this, I'll try and explain a couple of scenes. Malkovich, who takes charge of the plane, lands the plane in Carson City to let four men off as decoys. This makes sense, but then he takes off again and lands, yet again, in another location to be picked up by another plane. When he reaches the other location, the other plane is no where to be found, and so he decides to wait, leaving plenty of time for the cops to reach the location. During this, the cops find a bomb in Malkovich's former cell which kills three cops. How he got a bomb in there, I will never know. But this is not the point--action is. And there is plenty of it.
The final sequence of Con Air is mainly just a big, giant action generator which spews out scene and scene of nonstop action. I almost got tired of action and was hoping for just a tiny shred of logic. I didn't get it. What I got was a huge, special effects filled ending involving a landing in Las Vegas. This crash is phenomenal and almost redeems the film's lack of plot, but I don't think any kind of action scene could have saved this film. What does help is the cast and humor. Humor is sometimes left out of action pictures which can destroy an action film, but Con Air has plenty of laughs, mostly given by Malkovich ("That's a rock."). I was thankful for this tinge of humor because I realized that Con Air wasn't taking itself seriously, and we weren't supposed to either. But that is no excuse for sloppy editing and filming.
Con Air is rated R for strong violence and language and a scene of rape (which ends before it begins, thanfully). Con Air will most likely make a lot of money, but it will also be forgotten once other big budget films come out this season. Some of the films I am looking forward to are Contact, Men In Black, Copland, Titanic (which, unfortunately, has been pushed forward to December 19), and many more. Hopefully they are better than Con Air.