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Directed by: Simon West Starring: Nicholas Cage, John Malkovich, John Cusack, Steve Buschemi, Ving Rhames Going way back this was always one of my favorite action movies. It was actually the first R-rated movie I saw in theaters (I was 15 at the time I believe, and this was before movie theaters actually gave a drat if you were 17 and buying tickets to an R-rated movie). Anyways, the plot is pretty simple. An Army Ranger named Cameron Poe (Cage) gets out of the army and comes home to visit his pregnant wife (the oh so hot Monica Potter) and settle down. However that night they are assaulted by some random drunks and Poe inadvertently kills one. After a trial he's sentenced to 7 to 10 years for manslaughter and there's a jail sequence showing various scenes of how well Poe behaves in prison with voice-overs of him and his daughter (whom he has never met in person) reading letters they've written. Anyways, after 8 years Poe gets out on parole and happens to get transferred home on a plane which has been (stupidly) stocked with a shitload of really evil dudes. There's the throw-away brooding guy, the black militant (Rhames) and of course the complete psycho leading them all, Cyrus 'The Virus' Grissom (Malkovich). Before I go on, I'd just like to say that this is by far one of the best performances by Malkovich and he plays someone who is pretty much pure evil and able to kill without a second thought. The character is one-sided, yes (as are all), but he does so much with him that Grissom is actually a pretty scary dude. Anyway, with a well laid plan (not really) the cons take over the airplane and head off to a random desert airstrip to get another plane supplied to them by a Columbian drug lord on the same flight. However they cops are on to them thanks to Poe and meet up with them there. Anyways, there's a lot of explosions and a pretty cool battle but the cons get away. However now Cyrus knows Poe isn't on his side and there's a brawl which is conveniently interrupted by some apache helicoptors thanks to US Marshal Larkin (Cusack). After that the plane is forced to land (and by land, I mean crash) on the Vegas strip and Cyrus and Diamond Dog (that's the character played by Rhames) and the con pilot escape and there's yet another chase sequence which of course ends badly for the cons but okay for Cage and Cusack. Okay, the major, major flaw of the movie is the script. It's a Bruckheimer movie, so of course action sequences were worried about more than anything else. In terms of action it certainly delivers (some spectacular and very exciting action) but outside of that it has little to offer. Every single character is fairly cliched and amazingly one-sided (some even to an insane degree, such as the rapist guy who seems to only think of rape). Cage is the guy with a heart of gold always in the wrong place at the wrong time (and always has to do the right thing, though his character is at least more developed than everyone else). Rhames is a black militant, though he never goes on a black power rant or anything really (he does explain why though). Cusack is similar to Cage only you can pretty much entirely remove him from the movie with little ramification to the story. On top of that the script is pretty much the same as every airplane hijacking movie ever, except instead of civilians for passengers you have convicts, and instead of the minority (in terms of number of course) terrorists taking over the passengers take over. A lot of the stuff that happens is pretty coincidental ("that rope just happened to swing around and latch onto the rear end in a top hat DEA guy's car") but the movie wouldn't be entertaining otherwise I suppose. It's not without its fair share of flaws, and I really want to give it a 4/5 because it's so goddamn fun to watch as long as you aren't looking for a deep character-driven movie, but something is keeping me from doing that so: 3.5/5 Well worth the rental price. RATING: 3.5 PROS: good action sequences, John Malkovich does great, funny moments CONS: one-sided characters, pretty mediocre plot ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://imdb.com/title/tt0118880/
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Aug 19, 2004 01:31
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Though slightly far fetched, and a slightly worn out topic, it was an entertaining movie. 3.5
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Aug 19, 2004 06:01
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It was an entertaining movie and for some reason I cried at the end. 3.5/5
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Aug 19, 2004 13:18
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I hated this movie. Nic Cage is an awful action hero, Cusack/Buscemi/Malkovich were wasted, the pedo scene was way too creepy and out of place, and Malkovichs death scene was loving stupid. I paid £1 to see it in the cinema and it wasn't even worth that. 1
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Aug 19, 2004 16:14
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