Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
66 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Con Air

EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures

Con Air reviews
52
6.7 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 8 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Action  |  Adventure  |  Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Scott Rosenberg

Directed by: Simon West

Release Date:
Theatrical: June 6, 1997
DVD: March 25, 1998

Running Time: 115 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R

Starring Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich, John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, Steve Eastin, Ving Rhames, David Chappelle, and Monica Potter

A prison parolee (Cage) on his way to freedom faces impossible odds when the maximum security transport plane he's on is skyjacked by the most vicious criminals in the country. (Buena Vista Entertainment)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Con Air, a summer blast of a movie, teaches us many things: Producer Jerry Bruckheimer never met an explosion, a car crash or 20 tough guys talking trash he didn't like. Nicolas Cage is one of our most enjoyable screen heroes. As long as you're funny, you can literally get away with murder in a movie.

Read Full Review >
80

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Preposterous, predictable, but excessively entertaining, this frenzied thriller draws both story and characters from such action classics as "The Fugitive," "Die Hard," "The Dirty Dozen" and "The Silence of the Lambs."

Read Full Review >
80

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Director Simon West hits just the right note between self-conscious silliness and real dramatic intensity in this 1997 action thriller, which uses typecast actors to make the characters' one-liners and predictable behavior resonate.

Read Full Review >
80

Empire Caroline Westbrook

Yes, disbelief is required not so much to be suspended as removed altogether, but it barely matters as this is an adrenaline blast of the highest order.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This is a movie that knows it is absurd, and does little to deny it.

Read Full Review >
70

Variety Todd McCarthy

Apart from not knowing to quit while it's ahead, Con Air provides quite an exciting flight prior to its crash and burn.

Read Full Review >
70

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

The colorfully written Con Air is a solid chip off "The Rock," pumped up and very well cast, with the prettiness and polish of advertising art.

Read Full Review >
70

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Numbing but not boring, it's finally more dispiriting than exhilarating, like a wild night of debauchery that leaves only a fearsome hangover for a souvenir.

Read Full Review >
60

Salon.com Charles Taylor

How's the movie? Big, loud, brutal and stupid, that's how it is. But then, you don't need a critic to tell you that -- anyone with a grade-school education who's seen the previews can figure that out.

Read Full Review >
60

Film Threat Ron Wells

This is a big, silly film. Is it full of explosions and one-liners? Of course. Is it entertaining? Of course.

Read Full Review >
60

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

Con Air is entertaining in an extravagantly decadent sort of way. It just isn't a movie.

Read Full Review >
50

Newsweek David Ansen

The saving grace of Con Air is its sense of its own absurdity.

Read Full Review >
50

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This movie is a perfect example of what's wrong with many big-budget films today: no characters, no intelligence, and, worst of all, little fun.

Read Full Review >
50

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Mega-budget action extravaganzas don't get much sillier than this.

Read Full Review >
50

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

From scene to scene, the tone shifts from supposed sincerity to arch and amused, until the picture begins to seem like some mad, desperate, scattershot attempt to hold an audience's attention from moment to moment, by any means.

Read Full Review >
50

San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser

Director Simon West makes an impressive feature debut in this relentless action-comedy that is, more than anything else, about how funny it is to see hundreds of people exploded, shot, knifed, propellered and burnt to death, and how to land a plane on the crowded Vegas strip.

Read Full Review >
50

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

It's so shameless, so psychotically nervous about keeping you ''thrilled,'' that the phrase over the top won't do it justice. It's like a drug designed for people who've done every drug and now want to be jet-propelled into numbness.

Read Full Review >
40

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

There's nary a hint of suspense in West's film, though, mainly because he loudly trumpets the upcoming disasters so early in the film.

Read Full Review >
38

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Con Air has all the signs of a hit. That's depressing.

Read Full Review >
25

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Nicolas Cage, Ving Rhames, and Steve Buscemi are among the few performers who emerge with a shred of dignity at the end.

Read Full Review >
20

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

While tyro director Simon West fills Con Air with all the slam-bang action and well-honed wisecracks that were the more positive qualities of its predecessors, the film brims even more with all their worst qualities.

Read Full Review >
20

Slate David Edelstein

Con Air is boring to the marrow.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Doug gave it a10:
This movie is just good fun! What is wrong with that? I can be watched over and over and really never seems to get old!

Sam gave it a7:
I partially agree with Rolling Stone. Con Air has most makings of a hit, but it's still a fun movie plagued by by poor performances and terrible music.

[Anonymous] gave it a7:
Not the brightest plot, but what this movie lacks in smarts it makes up for in fun. And Las vegas...you gotta see that scene.

Evening Sun gave it a 6:
Con Air might not exactly be the most thought-provoking motion picture out there, but it's definitely entertaining. That, however, doesn't prevent it from being disappointing. The concept of letting a plane full of hilariously violent and completely different criminals is a fun idea, but no matter what this movie tries to be - a little more character development wouldn't hurt here. Con Air is a fun ride, but in the end - it's not mean enough, even for an action flick. For superior gun blazing goodness of the highest order, check out John Woo's Face/Off.

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use