Movie · 1997 · Action, Thriller, Crime · 1h 56m · R · English
Curator score: 3.9/10 (540.6K ratings)
They were deadly on the ground. Now they have wings.
Overview
Newly-paroled former US Army ranger Cameron Poe is headed back to his wife, but must fly home aboard a prison transport flight dubbed "Jailbird" taking the “worst of the worst” prisoners, a group described as “pure predators”, to a new super-prison. Poe faces impossible odds when the transport plane is skyjacked mid-flight by the most vicious criminals in the country led by the mastermind — genius serial killer Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom, and backed by black militant Diamond Dog and psychopath Billy Bedlam.
Ratings
Curator score: 3.9/10
IMDb: 6.9/10
Letterboxd: 3.45/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 59%
Metacritic: 52
TMDB: 6.8/10
Director
Simon West
Production
Touchstone Pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer Films
Cast
Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, John Malkovich, Ving Rhames, Mykelti Williamson, Dave Chappelle, Colm Meaney, Monica Potter, Landry Allbright, Rachel Ticotin, Steve Buscemi, Nick Chinlund, M.C. Gainey, Danny Trejo, Renoly Santiago, Steve Eastin, Brendan Kelly, Jesse Borrego, Carl Ciarfalio, Mongo Brownlee
Where to watch
Hulu, fuboTV, Philo
Curator Review
Verdict
A shamelessly oversized, self-aware 90s action machine: ludicrous premise, cartoon villains, big stunts, and Nicolas Cage fully committed to the bit. It’s dumb in exactly the way fans want, with enough momentum and quotable chaos to make the excess feel like the point.
Best for
fans of high-octane 90s action
viewers who enjoy campy, quotable blockbusters
Nicolas Cage devotees
people who like villain-heavy ensemble thrillers
Skip if
you want grounded realism
you dislike goofy tonal excess
prison-break or disaster-movie setups bore you
you need tight logic over spectacle
Overview
Con Air is the kind of studio action movie that knows it is ridiculous and keeps going anyway. Simon West stages the whole thing like a live-wire comic book: a prison transport in the sky, a gallery of grotesque criminals, and Nicolas Cage turning Cameron Poe into a long-haired, righteous action saint.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is not plausibility but confidence. The movie throws out one absurd escalation after another and treats each as a natural next step, which gives it a strange, propulsive logic. John Malkovich is gleefully theatrical, the supporting rogues’ gallery is memorably nasty, and the set pieces are engineered for maximum crowd-pleasing mayhem.
Bottom line
It’s also a perfect artifact of late-90s blockbuster excess, when action movies could be loud, ugly, funny, and weird all at once. If you’re in the mood for a glossy explosion of macho melodrama and bad behavior, it delivers exactly that with no apology.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Grooveman (5★) · 2649 likes
Is there a six star option?
🇵🇱 Steve G 🐝 (5★) · 1943 likes
When it comes to Con Air, there are two kinds of people:-
1) People who think Con Air is fucking awesome.
2) People who I don't want to talk to.
"The last Mohican is burning, man!"
Branson Reese · 1758 likes
One of the quotes I think about the most is this one from Brian Eno:
"Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of… more
Will Menaker (4★) · 1374 likes
Can't top StavvyBaby's review of this movie which said the best part is how much motherfucking sense it made.
The best part of this is the credits which show you each of the actors in this wonderful cast, most of whom play rapists or murderers, smiling and laughing with each other over "Sweet Home Alabama." I also love that the final scene makes the audience cheer for child cannibal Steve Buscemi being free to kill again.
KYK (4★) · 1259 likes
wow need a gif of nic cage beating up the guy and yelling DONT TREAT WOMEN LIKE THAT