Con Air

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Action	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1997	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	110:36 Minutes (Not 115 Minutes as per packaging)	Other Extras	None
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Movie	Cast & Crew
Region	2,4	Director	Simon West
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Nicolas Cage John Cusack John Malkovich Steve Buscemi Ving Rhames Colm Meaney
Case	Amaray	Starring
RRP	$34.95	Music	Mark Mancina Trevor Rabin

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement		Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384Kb/s) French (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192Kb/s) Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	?	Smoking	Yes
Subtitles	English Dutch French English for the Hearing Impaired	Annoying Product Placement	No
Subtitles	English Dutch French English for the Hearing Impaired	Action In or After Credits	No

Plot Synopsis

A general note here about something I want to get off my chest: dying from insulin deprivation takes days, possibly even weeks, not hours or minutes. In case you're wondering why I pointed that out, it's pretty simple: this movie has plot holes that you could drive a convoy of cargo aircraft through, and while most of them don't matter, that one is just plain irritating. In any case, the rest of the plot goes something like this: Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage), an Airborne Ranger, exchanges some hostile words with a drunk slimebag in the defense of his pregnant wife. The same man, with some of his buddies in tow, confronts him outside the bar, whereupon he beats seven bells out of them all, killing one of his attackers in the process. His lawyer advises him to plead guilty to manslaughter, but the judge gives him the maximum sentence anyway. Major plot hole number one: the District Attorney decides the sentence in plea bargains, not the judge, and who in their right mind would want to lock a man up for defending himself and a pregnant wife, dare I ask? After spending a number of years in prison, Poe is paroled and put on a plane to be transported home with a mob of the state's most violent criminals, including Billy Bedlam (Nick Chinlund), Cyrus Grissom (John Malkovich) "Diamond Dog" (Ving Rhames), "Johnny 23" (Danny Trejo), and Gatland Greene (Steve Buscemi), who gets one of the most memorable lines in the film. Also along for the ride are such token sidekicks as "Baby-O" (Mykelti Williamson), the aforementioned diabetic plot device written by a screenwriter who obviously wouldn't know hyperglycaemia if it crawled up his urethra and exploded. Major plot hole number two: dying from diabetes pretty much never happens these days, and missing a single dose of insulin will not kill you. I miss doses of insulin all the time (although I am on a variety of synthetic insulin that is designed to allow maximum flexibility) and barely notice, as a matter of fact.

Anyway, as you would expect from a film like this, the transport plane does not manage to take off, have a smooth flight, and go to all of its scheduled stops without a hitch. As many a good reviewer would tell you, it would be a very short and extremely boring film if it did. Think about what makes the film a better story: plane full of convicts makes safe journey, or plane full of convicts is hijacked and stuff gets blown up. I know what I would rather watch when it comes to entertainment value. Anyway, as luck and a bad script would have it, Cyrus and his fellow criminals manage to hijack the plane in some very improbable steps that make you wonder what the hell security means to the fictional representatives of the Department of Corrections contained in this film. On the ground, Vince Larkin (John Cusack) argues with Duncan Malloy (Colm Meaney) against shooting down the plane from the beginning of the film to the end. They help lend some kind of tension to the proceedings, which is more than I can say for the prison guards in the air, whom I felt got what they richly deserved in this film. You pretty much know from the start that Poe and Duncan are going to emerge victorious, hand in hand with vows of friendship exchanged. It's watching them get to that point that makes the meat in the sandwich with this film. Leave your brain in neutral, and you'll thoroughly enjoy this film as long as you don't have a problem with watching people being extremely violent towards one another.

Transfer Quality

Video

Well, in spite of my problems with major aspects of the plot, Con Air is a very enjoyable film that moves along at a whip-cracking pace which covers up its plot holes by giving us very little time to think about them. I was therefore more concerned with the video transfer quality, especially given my previous experiences with Touchstone releases such as Starship Troopers that have mostly been less than positive.

The film is presented at the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and it is 16x9 Enhanced. The transfer is mostly sharp, although there are some scenes involving a high degree of physical motion which became a little blurred, which is partly the fault of the cinematography. Background details also had a slight tendency to be blurred in some shots, but it is not completely clear whether this was the result of photographic limitations or the transfer. Shadow detail is perfectly acceptable, although it does get a little murky in some points, most notably the beginning of the film.

The colour saturation was spot on from start to finish, although it had a tendency to be a little dull and mechanical, bringing a certain lifeless feel to the scenery indoors. I believe this is another deliberate artistic choice, given that the vast majority of the film takes place in a plane or a desert, scenes which would demand dull colouration. By contrast, the sequences in the middle of Las Vegas were rendered with rich lights, even if the colour scheme was still slightly on the dull side.

MPEG artefacts were happily absent from the presentation, and film-to-video artefacts were very mild because of their restriction to aliasing in such things as car grilles and aircraft rotors. If you blink, you will miss them. Film artefacts were moderate in frequency and mild in intensity, which is probably the biggest complaint I would have about the transfer.

Audio

This is a delightful audio transfer, with everything you would expect from a film that is all action and no brains, and with one very pleasant surprise thrown in for good measure. There are three audio tracks presented on this DVD: the default English Dolby Digital 5.1, and dubs in French and Italian, both of which are encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. Because I have no interest whatsoever in French or Italian, or in learning either language, I stuck with the default English soundtrack. The dialogue was mostly clear and easy to understand, although it did occasionally descend into a certain kind of abrupt depth during action scenes. Audio sync was spot-on throughout the film, although there were moments when it threatened to lag behind. As far as dialogue is concerned, you will find very little to complain about here. However, there is some subtitled dialogue in Spanish during the film, which is somewhat annoying if you are able to understand both English and Spanish, even if you only understand the latter language on a basic level.

The score music in this film is credited to Mark Mancina and Trevor Rabin. It was very energetic and powerful, augmented by some extremely good use of percussion and bass. Unlike many other action movie scores, it augments and drives the onscreen action in a way you'd normally expect to find in such films as Star Wars or Groundhog Day. Although it seems as though there was only about forty minutes of unique music spread throughout the two hours of the film, it never gets boring at any point. It also makes the few idle moments in the film seem a lot more exciting, which is certainly a handy ability when you're scoring an action movie.

The surround channels were used aggressively to support the action and the music, with an abundance of directional effects that drew this particular reviewer into the overall experience of the film quite well. The subwoofer got a great workout supporting the gunshots and explosions, as well as the music. This is a good soundtrack with which to demonstrate how wonderfully your DVD player supports action films.

Extras

Extras to extras, funk to funky, we know Touchstone Pictures are flunkies...

R4 vs R1

The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

Theatrical trailer
Teaser trailer

The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

16x9 Enhancement

Let's see... two trailers versus superior vertical resolution?

Summary

Con Air is an enjoyable action film in spite of massive plot holes, presented on a good DVD.

The video quality is surprisingly good.

The audio quality is immersive.

It's a pity about the extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment

DVD	Grundig GDV 100 D, using composite output; Toshiba SD-2109, using S-video output
Display	Panasonic TC-29R20 (68 cm), 4:3 mode, using composite input; Samsung CS-823AMF (80 cm), 16:9 mode/4:3 mode, using composite and S-video inputs
Audio Decoder	Built In (Amplifier)
Amplification	Sony STR-DE835
Speakers	Panasonic S-J1500D Front Speakers, Sharp CP-303A Back Speakers, Philips FB206WC Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Subwoofer