290. Con Air (1997)

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Steve Buscemi, John Malkovich

Director: Simon West

Running Time: 115 mins

Con Air is an American film about a US government plane carrying some of the world’s most dangerous convicts between prisons, however one ex-army parolee must save the day after the plane is hijacked by the prisoners it is carrying.

This was a really entertaining film! Throughout, it was very exciting to watch, with great action and an excellent story, which was in effect very predictable, however it was that sort of heroic action movie that was still just great to watch.

I was delighted by how this film managed to not fall into the trap that many other aeroplane-based thrillers do. Normally, these types of films are quite claustrophobic and uncomfortable to watch, however the way that this film implemented lengthy scenes outside of the aircraft, which were still relevant and interesting made it a whole lot easier to watch.

However, I have to admit that the characters in this movie were very clichéd, and therefore not that interesting to figure out. Even the character played by Steve Buscemi, a supposed Hannibal Lecter-esque criminal, was not scary or creepy enough to really make me intrigued in him.

Also, the ending of this film was extremely cheesy. I’m obviously not going to reveal what happens, even though it is extremely predictable, however there is a large action scene where many, perhaps too many explosions occur, which was a little disappointing to see, as I thought that this film would be able to offer something a more intelligent to end the film, however it was still overall very entertaining to watch, with a great story, and because of that, I’ll give it an 8.0.