In the super-fast high-impact jailbreak thriller “Con Air,” Nicolas Cage does his second big-action-movie-hero role since winning his “Leaving Las Vegas” Oscar. And, as in last year’s “The Rock,” he catches the right blend of nerves and wit, this time playing convict Cameron Poe, a brave and decent guy trapped on a hijacked jail transport plane with a gallery of killers.
Cage gets the part’s heroism. But he gets something more: a tongue-in-cheek quality rarely you rarely see in the Arnold Schwarzeneggers, Sly Stallones or Harrison Fords with whom Cage now seems to be competing. Cage finesses the silly side of movie heroism, and he shows how his movie courage has a rhyme in the sadism of John Malkovich’s head villain Cyrus “The Virus” Grissom. The double edges in those performances and in Scott Rosenberg’s wisecracking script give “Con Air” uncommon bite and sass.
Most big-budget action movies have such ridiculous story lines that when you spot some self-awareness — as you can in “Con Air” — it puts the movie ahead of the game from the start. Shot with the rapid rhythms and overpowering visuals of a classy TV commercial, with a very smart cast and a funny script, “Con Air” functions as a typical high-gloss action movie — full of explosions, gunfights and macho posturing. But it also knows how to make fun of itself.
The movie, which includes a wild chase and plane crash on Las Vegas’ strip is way over the top on every level, but amusingly so. And how you react to it depends on whether you enjoy the jokes and sarcasm — and also on how much you like the offbeat casting of edgy, brainy actors like Cage and John Cusack as the two heroes and Malkovich, Ving Rhames and Steve Buscemi as the main villains.
The movie, written by Scott Rosenberg (“Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead”) is about a group of vicious cons who hijack the U.S. Marshals Service transport plane that’s carrying them over the Nevada desert. Masterminding the takeover is genius psychopath Cyrus “The Virus” (Malkovich) and African American revolutionary Nathan “Diamond Dog” Jones (Rhames).
Along for the ride, however, are two good-hearted parolees, Cameron Poe (Cage) and Baby-O (Mykelti Williamson), who quite obviously don’t belong in the assortment of depraved maniacs, psychotics and ten-time losers on the plane. Poe, an ex-Army Ranger hero didn’t even belong in jail. Eight years ago, in a tavern parking lot brawl, in self-defense he killed a thug who harassed his wife and pulled a knife. Lousy advice from his lawyer led him to a manslaughter guilty plea and a seven- to 10-year sentence. Now he’s being released, eager to rejoin his wife (Monica Potter) and meet his young daughter (Landry Allbright).
But the hijack intervenes, and Poe makes a heroic decision to stay aboard instead of joining a group to be let off at the first stop. His motives: to save his diabetic buddy Baby-O and the female guard, Sally Bishop (Rachel Ticotin), who is getting slavering attention from Johnny 23 (Danny Trejo), a serial rapist with 23 known victims.
Also aboard is the notorious serial killer Garland Greene (Steve Buscemi) and a supporting cast who would be proud to be called the scum of the earth. Piloting the plane — and the staggering assortment of scumballs on board — is the beer-chugging, long-haired hill-bully Swamp Thing (M.C. Gainey). And chasing them all are a counter-culture U.S. Marshal, Vince Larkin, who wears sandals (John Cusack) and a tough D.E.A. agent, Duncan Malloy (played by Irish actor Colm Meaney), who thinks Larkin is a wuss and wants to use guided missiles.
“Con Air” is a comedy about machismo, with almost everyone on board and the people chasing them demonstrating some flaw in the male character. And the hero — stalwart, stoic Cameron Poe, with his flowing locks and uncovered biceps — is just as funny and crazy as the villains. Cage — reading his lines with a Southern accent and a mystical faraway look — plays Poe as a good, gutsy, honorable man with one idee fixe: He can’t walk away from a fight.
Malkovich, as Cyrus “The Virus,” is a great needler and wisecraker, a psychopathic Billy Crystal type. With his mad, gloomy eyes and menacingly flat delivery, Cyrus is both a typical Malkovich heavy and a cutup who uses threats and murders as punchlines. Cusack plays his specialty: a nice, hip young iconoclast trying to keep his cool in an insane situation. But it’s Cage who puts this movie in another comic zone. As in “The Rock” (also produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and a much sillier movie than this), he’s able to evoke both guts and humor.
“Con Air” producer Bruckheimer and his late partner, Don Simpson, had a weakness for flashy British ex-TV commercial directors like Tony Scott (“Crimson Tide”) and Adrian Lyne (“Flashdance”). And he’s found another one for “Con Air”: first-time feature helmer Simon West. West’s resume includes almost nothing but rock videos and TV ads. And like his Simpson-Bruckheimer predecessors, he’s a prodigious but impersonal image maker, with lots of energy and little real flair for human drama.
Scott Rosenberg has written three interesting scripts in different modes. “Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead” is an arty modern film noir. “Beautiful Girls” is a naturalistic ensemble comedy drama. And “Con Air” is high-commercial star-driven, action-movie stuff. In a strange way, though, they’re a lot alike. Besides Rosenberg’s witty, antagonistic dialogue, they’re about essentially all-male groups invaded by women, with a main character — Andy Garcia, Tim Hutton and Nic Cage here — trying to hang onto integrity and romance among crass, funny, sometimes dangerous friends.
If “Beautiful Girls” is the best-written of the three, “Denver” the artiest and “Con Air” the most ultra-commercial, they all share the same funny, dark view of the world. (Rosenberg might be well-advised, though, to avoid the gamy sub-theme of pedophilia, which has now cropped up in all three of his scripts.)
“Con Air” recalls some of the great grungy group action movies of the ’60s and ’70s, especially Robert Aldrich’s (vastly superior) “The Dirty Dozen” and “The Flight of the Phoenix.” While observing all the usual post-’80s action-movie rules, it manages to be smart and funny. If producer Bruckheimer is willing to hire actors as good as Cage, Malkovich, Cusack and the others, we can forgive him for blowing up the sets and leaving Las Vegas in ruins. The movie is outrageous, but fun — with a sarcastic last shot that cheerfully undercuts its own happy ending. How can things be happy, writer Rosenberg rightly wonders, in a world as bloody and crazy as the one he shows here?
”CON AIR”
(star) (star) (star)
Directed by Simon West; written by Scott Rosenberg; photographed by David Tattersall; edited by Chris Lebenzon, Steve Mirkovich, Glen Scantlebury; art direction by Edward McAvoy; music by Mark Mancina, Trevor Rabin; produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. A Touchstone Pictures release; opens Friday. Running time: 1:15. MPAA rating: R. Language, sensuality, violence.
THE CAST
Cameron Poe …………………….. Nicolas Cage
U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin ………… John Cusack
Cyrus “The Virus” Grissom ………..John Malkovich
Garland Greene ………………….. Steve Buscemi
Nathan “Diamond Dog” Jones ……… Ving Rhames
Duncan Malloy …………………… Colm Meaney
