Con Air (1997)

HomeFilmCon Air

Action thrillers don't come more crash-bang-wallop than this one, released in 1997. Be prepared for a white-knuckle, high-octane ride as a seemingly inexhaustible number of blistering OTT set-pieces pile in, leaving you quite breathless.

Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage) is an ex-Army Ranger, who's served several years in prison for manslaughter. Now on his way home to his family, he's on a plane, but this is no ordinary internal flight. Astonishingly the authorities have chosen to put nearly every psycho lifer they can muster on the same aircraft, ostensibly to take them all to a new super-prison.

And guess what? The psycho cons - led by barking baldie Cyrus "the Virus" Grissom (John Malkovich) - revolt in Grade-A style, hi-jack the plane and threaten to blow it and all the passengers to pieces. Terrific.

Time for Cage - who seems to swagger about in his vest for much of the film - to join forces with the authorities (including John Cusack as a US Marshal) and come to the passengers' rescue.

If you're prepared to suspend belief, Con Air is great fun all round. Look out in particular for Steve Buscemi, who nearly steals the film as the completely bonkers Marietta Mangler, a wonderful pastiche of Hannibal Lecter.

Highly recommended.

Con Air is a Film programme that first aired in 1997 and has been rated 15.

Con Air is a 4 star programme.

Next Show Times

• United Kingdom

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