Con Air

Thriller, Action

Nicolas Cage	Cameron Poe
John Cusack	U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin
John Malkovich
Ving Rhames
Nick Chinlund
Monica Potter	Tricia Poe
Landry Allbright	Casey Poe
M.C. Gainey	Swamp Thing
Danny Trejo	Johnny Baca
Steve Buscemi	Garland Greene
Brendan Kelly	Conrad
Jesse Borrego	Francisco Cindino
Steve Eastin	Guard Falzon

Director	Simon West
Producer	Jerry Bruckheimer; Lynn Bigelow
Writer	Scott Rosenberg
Cinematography	David Tattersall
Musician	Trevor Rabin; Mark Mancina

Con Air is proof that the slick, absurdly overblown action formula of Hollywood mega-producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun, Days of Thunder, The Rock, Crimson Tide) lives on, even after Simpson's druggy death. (Read Charles Fleming's exposé, High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Excess, for more about that.) Nicolas Cage, sporting a disconcerting mane of hair, is a wrongly convicted prisoner on a transport plane with a bunch of infamously psychopathic criminals, including head creep Cyrus the Virus (John Malkovich), black militant Diamond Dog (Ving Rhames), and serial killer Garland Greene (Steve Buscemi, making the most of his pallid, rodent-like qualities). Naturally, the convicts take over the plane; meanwhile, on the ground, a U.S. marshal (John Cusack) and a DEA agent (Colm Meaney) try to figure out what to do. As is the postmodern way, the movie displays a self-consciously ironic awareness that its story and characters are really just excuses for a high-tech cinematic thrill ride. Best idea: the filmmakers persuaded the owners of the legendary Sands Hotel in Las Vegas to let them help out with the structure's demolition by crashing their plane into it. --Jim Emerson