I was watching *Van Helsing *the other night (finally showed up on free cable) and while I enjoyed watching k.d. lang as Dracula, I thought it was one of the stupidest movies I’ve ever seen. Almost as stupid as League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Groovy visuals of course, for the most part, although I look forward to the day when CGI motion looks as natural as CGI fur.
Then today I watched ***Con Air ***again. Now there’s a movie that gets it right: big splosions, well orchestrated action and tension, PLUS it doesn’t leave you feeling insulted for being stupid enough just to sit through it, like the two movies mentioned above. In Con Air, everybody’s in on the joke, but nobody blinks. Everybody plays it perfectly straight when you know they’re just crackin up inside. I just might be my favorite big dumb loud testosterone flick. And some amusement park somewhere should totally make a Corvette ride like that.
Van Helsing was crappy but campy crap. League was just a complere waste of film and actors.
Con Air worked because it had a large cast of great Indy Film actors and they treated a weak storyline as something worth acting well in.
Nicolas Cage … Cameron Poe Archtype character worked somehow
John Cusack … U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin **Great and very likable. **
Monica Potter … Tricia Poe
Landry Allbright … Casey Poe
M.C. Gainey … Swamp Thing
Danny Trejo … Johnny ‘Johnny-23’ Baca **Kinda of a one note actor, but it was the note the film needed. ** Steve Buscemi … Garland ‘The Marietta Mangler’ Greene **Awesome actor in such high camp for role he came right back around to great acting. **
Steve Eastin … Guard Falzon
Rachel Ticotin … Guard Sally Bishop
Dave Chappelle … Joe ‘Pinball’ Parker
Ving Rhames … Nathan ‘Diamond Dog’ Jones Very Convincing,
John Malkovich … Cyrus ‘The Virus’ Grissom **Great actor, treated a silly role like it was Shakespeare. **
Jim
I agree, Con Air is awesome, one of the better action movies of the 1990s. Poo-poo it if you wish, movie snobs, but if I told you that there was this great, fun movie with Nicholas Cage, John Malkovich, John Cusack, Ving Rhames, and Steve Buscemi, you KNOW you’d line up to see it too.
I enjoyed Van Helsing just for the automatic cross bow and LOEG if only for Allan Quartermain’s marksmanship. Hell, VH was worth it just for the Jesuit “Q”.
Didn’t you ever read King Solomon’s Mines or She? 