I watched Con Air a few weekends ago and it reminded
me of the first time I had seen it. It came out when I
was in grad school and I saw it with a few friends. We
weren’t looking for a movie that would inform and
enlighten us or that would broaden our horizons. We
wanted a movie that had some action in it and would
get our minds of the stresses of finals, papers and
presentations. This movie did just that and it still
will do that for me. It’s an action-packed film that
has big name stars, guns, planes, explosions, and the
appropriate good-guys and bad-guys in it.
I enjoyed seeing John Cusak in it as well as John
Malkovich and Colm Meaney. Steve Buscemi is also in it
and after having seen him in Fargo I didn’t recognize
him when I saw the movie the first time. He gained
weight for the film and his character is much more
laid back than I would have expected-he plays a serial
killer of children in the movie. One of my favorite
lines in the movie is delivered by Buscemi. He’s
sitting in the plane with the Lynrd Skynrd Song “Sweet
Home Alabama” playing in the background, and all t he
other cons are singing and dancing to the music. He
looks across the aisle at Nicholas Cage and says;
“Define irony: a bunch of idiots dancing around on a
plane to a song made famous by a band that died in a
plane crash.”
My other favorite line in the movie-which makes me
laugh each time I see it is when Cage’s character
along with his friend “Baby-O” and the one female on
the plane guard Bishop are at the back of the plane
and attempting to get off the plane. The rest of the
cons have just had a fire-fight with the national
guard and won, and the plane takes off with Colm
Meaney’s corvette being dragged along behind the
plane. We see the vette suspended in mid-air as if
it’s flying and we hear Cage say;
“On any other day that might seem strange.”
It makes me laugh every time I hear it.
Con Air is not a Disney movie, it’s not a “change your
life and your mindset” type of movie, but it is a
Hollywood action packed movie that will keep you awake
and has a typical Hollywood ending. If you’re looking
for that then you won’t be disappointed. I know I
wasn’t!
Sweet Home Alabama [song]
http://music.guardian.co.uk/vinylword/story/0,,2212407,00.html
Lynard Skynrd Song Facts
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1702
Con Air [1997]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118880/
Tuesday, November 27th , 2007
