Con Air

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.

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."

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.

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.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

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

Newsweek David Ansen

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

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.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

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

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.

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.

Slate David Edelstein

Con Air is boring to the marrow.