Con Air
Published February 26, 2012
Film info
- Title Con Air
- Director Simon West
- Year 1997
- Run time 1hr 55m
- Genres Thriller, Action, Crime
- Tagline They were deadly on the ground, now they have wings
America’s most hardened and dangerous criminals are transported via Con Air, customized armored aircraft equipped with armed guards, hand and leg shackles, and top secret destinations that even the prisoners aren’t privy to. No one has ever escaped from one of these flying fortresses---until now. In this action-packed thriller, a group of violent and deadly cons seizes control of one of the planes, taking the guards hostage and setting a course out of the country. Poe, an inmate who has done his time and is being shipped home to be reunited with his family, proves to be a fly in the ointment who battles for control of the aircraft, averting disaster and, in a thrilling climax brings the plane down safely in Las Vegas and brings the cons to justice.
Live Blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:44 | How Do I Live but not by LeAnn Rimes? |
| 5:30 | He gets a worse punishment because he’s in the forces? |
| 7:21 | Oh, Mr Cage, the master of the monotonous voice. |
| 7:54 | He sounds like Forrest Gump. |
| 9:03 | His first gift to his daughter should be to cut his hair. |
| 12:29 | Loads of security to get them to the plane, what on earth could go wrong? |
| 13:30 | “What’s with dictionary boy here?” |
| 15:12 | They’re talking to Denzel for the movie! Movie within a movie reference. |
| 16:53 | He just called our main guy a nobody! |
| 19:06 | “Nothing, I was just admiring your cage.” |
| 21:21 | The anticipation of bad things is killing me. |
| 24:16 | It didn’t take very long for the anticipation to be resolved! |
| 29:01 | Curious what the overall plan for Con Air is, but Sirius is bound to have one. |
| 35:41 | I knew he’d have a plan! |
| 39:40 | Now that is some security. Is it Hannibal? |
| 41:27 | Where did Sirius get the means to make that? Hmm. Still, people should really listen when they are told not to touch anything. |
| 45:44 | “Contingency plans don’t exist. A situation like this has never been contemplated.” |
| 53:06 | It is the degree of menace that he says learn that would make you become an expert? |
| 55:48 | Oh god, things falling out of the sky! |
| 59:31 | “It’s got your name written all over it.” Literally. |
| 1:01:31 | Can any sentence be threatening with the word bunny in it? |
| 1:04:21 | Woah. That’s an airfield where planes go to die. |
| 1:11:30 | “You’re proving to be a most useful mammal.” |
| 1:16:23 | Ol’ Cusack didn’t pass on the wife’s message. Can’t think he’ll bother to pass the message back the other way. |
| 1:20:42 | There are a lot of people at this abandoned airfield. |
| 1:26:27 | There’s quite a lot of shooting going on. All we need now is the helicopters. |
| 1:28:26 | “Any other day that might seem strange.” |
| 1:31:47 | Triple rage! His friend, the bunny, the letter. Jeez! |
| 1:33:14 | He got shot in the arm and didn’t even flinch. That’s impossible rage! |
| 1:38:01 | It all went a bit Speed there for a second. |
| 1:40:18 | “Next time take the bus.” Clearly she hasn’t seen Speed. |
| 1:46:42 | “I meant to get a hair cut.” Ohhh, I feel bad now. |
| 1:48:17 | How do they make that feel like a good thing? He murdered thirty people! |
Conclusions
This is one that Mr C has seen before and loves, so he was keen for us to watch it together and Film Watch it. It’s been on iTunes for ages, but we stubbornly waited for the HD rentable to appear and - lo and behold - it got there eventually. I had very little idea of what to expect, except that the title suddenly became clear to me moments before we pressed play. Cons… in the air… I get it!
I really enjoyed this one. I wasn’t at all happy with the sound mixing, which must have happened with whoever put together the HD version, because I can’t believe someone would release a film like that. It was like the music and the voices and the sound effects were all at exactly the same level, so it’s not that you couldn’t hear any of it, but it was all a bit indistinguishable.
Talking of the music, I kept bugging Mr C by pointing out how like Speed it was, and it turns out it was the same guy. We were sort of impressed with my improving understanding of film. Woo!
That aside, I thought it was a great story. I wasn’t too big a fan of Cage’s character, the monotonous voice didn’t help make him endearing. Some of his lines were good but I thought perhaps he was going for a John McLane feel and missing.
I was teetering towards five out of five, but the sound problem didn’t help. Really, I think it loses one point for suffering that “final sequence has to be awesome/ridiculous” problem. I mean, it was no helicopter in the Channel Tunnel, but it was a fire truck chase scene. As if landing on the Strip wasn’t exciting enough.
**Rating: **4/5
Rating: 4 / 5