Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

bowmanblue There are great films that will stand the test of time and then there are great – FUN – films. 'Con Air' is the latter. It may never be committed to the world's film archive as an example of classic Hollywood storytelling, but it deserves its place the annals of nineties action movies. For, if you're looking for one great action film that summed up the decade, then it's 'The Rock' (or possibly 'Speed'). But if you're looking for two or three, then Con Air should definitely be in there.Where do I start? Oh, yes, the star of the show. And, when I say 'star' I don't mean Nicholas Cage, but the explosions! Everything (and very nearly everyone!) explodes around here. Years before Michael Bay bored us to death with those pretty explosions Con Air did it first (and better!). However, apart from the fireworks, it does boast a really impressive cast to blow things up. Yes, Nick Cage is at the forefront of the carnage and he plays what is actually a bit of a tongue in cheek role straight as they come. He's ably assisted by John Cusack and – perhaps more importantly – John Malkovich, as he's almost as important as the explosions. The fact is, he's possibly one of the greatest (and possibly under-rated) villains ever to grace the silver screen. He's absolutely fantastically bad, only slightly over the top, but never playing it so much that he becomes unbelievable or a cartoon of himself. Now, it's easy to give all the acting credit to Malkovich, but this 'rogues gallery' of an aeroplane is also packed full of colourful (and completely evil) other prisoners and a special mention to Steve Buscemi who isn't in it for as long as some might wish, but is also fun to watch as a – not particularly subtle – Hannibal Lecter clone.Anyway, the plot… our Nicholas Cage plays a U.S. ranger who returns from active duty to his pregnant wife, only to immediately he embroiled in a bar fight where he ends up killing his assailant. Now mercy is spared here and he ends up being sent to prison for years. Then, and all this is hardly a spoiler as it all happens in practically the first five minutes, when he does get released he only ends up on a prison plane flying across America that gets hijacked by the convicts. Some guys just don't get a break.I think the reason I find Con Air so watchable is because it's serious, but not dark – if that makes sense. It kind of knows that it's being a bit overblown and has some nice moments of humour thrown in there, but it's part of that generation of action film that came because 'uber-serious' action films were forced upon us ('Bourne' franchise and Daniel Craig's Bond – I'm looking at you).I find it hard to believe that there are people out there who won't find some enjoyment from this film. Even if you're not a massive fan of any of the stars or action movies in general, this is just such a daft, silly ride then surely you can't help yourself from climbing aboard the plane and going along for a – very explosive – ride.

Isabel Cooke I have watched this movie 4 times this year (it is March) and I took two film classes. I got As in both my film classes. Here are the hottest characters: Steve Buscemi, Swamp Thing. Those are my top two, no doubt. I don't understand how anyone could watch this movie and come out with a different opinion. One time I convinced someone that Swamp Thing was hot. At first she did not see it but the power of suggestion is a powerful power indeed.

Fella_shibby I saw this movie almost 20 years ago with my brother in Regal theatre in south Mumbai. Bought a blu ray. Will revisit soon. It's a very entertaining movie with non-stop action n lot's of explosions. So many actors as villains- Malkovich, Rhames, Buscemi, Trejo. Nic Cage really got into good shape for this film but his long hair on the neck side was funny. It has good one liners, plenty of actors, awesome action. It can b called one of the best action flick of the late 90s. Nic Cage was really having a good time, Leaving Las Vegas, The Rock, Con Air and Face Off all in a row. All solid movies. The only flaw is the editing which is a lil poor. The shootout at the deserted airfield deserves merits. A must buy for action fans.

Fred Schaefer I recently had the pleasure of listening to Chad Dukes discuss CON AIR on his podcast and it prompted me to get out my own DVD copy and watch it again for the first time in many years and was pleased to discover that it was just as great as the first time I saw it back in the theater in that long ago summer of 1997. But seeing it again made me a little sad, as it is now a stark reminder that the old cliché is very apt in this case: they just don't make them like this anymore.Looking back now, it's clear CON AIR was the high water mark of the Golden Age of the Action Movie, the era that gave us SPEED, THE ROCK, AIR FORCE ONE, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE and the first couple of DIE HARD sequels; the kind of films that made Jerry Bruckheimer a fan favorite. These movies were cheerfully over the top in the way good comic books are; filled with great dialog, scenes of mass destruction where every explosion looks like a huge gas tank going up with along with tough guys trying to annihilate each with everything from bullet spewing automatic weapons to wicked looking knives, and if nothing else, their fists. These were movies based on a ridiculous and improbable premise that served as a perfect hook for a easy to please audience yearning for good entertainment. The hook for CON AIR was Nicholas Cage's Cameron Poe, a good man who caught a bad break which landed him in a tight situation where he has to be a hero if he wants to get home to his wife and daughter. Poe, a hero of the Persian Gulf War, accidentally kills a drunken lout in a bar fight and inexplicably ends up in Federal Prison; when he finally wins parole, Poe gets a ride home on a prison flight filled with some of the worst criminals ever put in solitary confinement. Things go south in mid air when John Malkovich's Cyrus Grissom, a brilliant criminal mastermind leads the rest of the very hardened criminal passengers in a successful plan to take over the plane and escape across the border. On the ground, US Marshall, Vince Larkin, played by John Cusack, is desperately trying to find a way to get the plane back, the prisoners recaptured and do so despite the incompetent interference of superiors and co-workers. This sets off a convoluted plot filled with narrow escapes just in time, epic confrontations, ambushes, double crosses, and a showdown on the Vegas strip that is wonderfully over the top as Simon West's script works overtime to top itself.The big pull for CON AIR has always been the violence, which is excellently staged, not only in the fore mentioned Vegas Strip finale, but especially in the middle section of the film when the plane puts down at the isolated desert airport. But every true fan of the film knows that the movie's real strength is the performances, which gives some great actors plenty of scenery to chew and spit out. Cage was at the height of his stardom in the mid 90's, having just won the Oscar for LEAVING LAS VEGAS, and was considered a serious actor at the time; Cameron Poe gave him a great opportunity to use some of his best tricks, starting with an affected Southern accent that is impossible to forget. At first, the laid back Cusack seemed an odd choice for an action blockbuster, but it proved to be a piece of inspired casting as Cusack's distinct style of cool intensity proved to be perfect fit with the overwrought eye rolling of his co stars.By some accounts, Malkovich was less than happy with his villain role and the project itself as a whole, if so, it doesn't show up on the screen; he commits totally to the role of Cyrus the Virus.Then there are the great acting contributions by Ving Rhames, Nick Chinlund, Danny Trejo, Colm Meaney, the young Dave Chappelle, Kevin Gage, M.C. Gainey, Conrad Goode, Ty Granderson, Rachel Ticotin, Mykelti Williamson, and two great character stars: Don Davis and Dabs Greer. But the icing on the cake is still Steve Buscemi as Garland Greene, the detached serial killer who sits back utterly amused at it all; his conversations with Poe are classic bits, as is Greene's unnerving "tea party" with the little girl. How great is it that the worst of the worst seems to be the sanest of the lot and is the only one to actually get away in a great final scene. Yet watching CON AIR now makes me painfully aware of the passage of time, I agree with those who point out that if it came out today, the ridiculous plot twists and over the top action pieces would be picked apart on social media Friday night of opening weekend while Millennials would no doubt be horrified by some of the crude racial epitaphs thrown back and forth by the inmates. In the post 9/11 era, the action movie would become darker and much more serious, Cameron Poe would be replaced by Jason Bourne and a movie about a plane hijacked by criminals would not be considered fun. Even the villains would change, where in the 90's, great bad guys like Cyrus the Virus were cousins of Hannibal Lector, while now they are some variation on a terrorist. Though Nicolas Cage had a great summer in 1997, starring in both CON AIR, and that other action classic, FACE OFF, in the years ahead, a series of bombs and bad role choices along with an increasing tendency to over act would turn him into a punch line.