'Con Air': Extreme Turbulence at Cruising Altitude

Fly the felonious skies of "Con Air," a nonstop flight from reality kept aloft by first exploiting, then mocking its own gonzo cliches. 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."

Scott Rosenberg's pulse-quickening, fiendishly funny script focuses on Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage), a parolee heading home to see his family after eight years of unjust imprisonment. Unfortunately, he's hitched a ride aboard the Jailbird, a big-bellied prop plane used to transport America's most notorious fiends. (Compared with these animals, the guy who pooped on the service cart is a role model for frequent fliers).

While Cameron daydreams about his upcoming reunion with his lovely wife and the daughter he's never met, the caged and shackled prisoners escape their bonds, shoot the guards and hijack the plane in mid-flight. Although Cameron has a chance to deplane during a stopover at Carson City, Nev., he stays on board to protect his ailing cellmate, Baby-O (Mykelti Williamson), and a surviving guard (Rachel Ticotin) from Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom (mustache-twirling John Malkovich) and his scum-baggerous band.

The guard is menaced by a serial rapist (Danny Trejo). Worse -- Baby-O, a diabetic in need of an insulin shot, is in danger of becoming airline food. See, back in Carson City they took on even more dangerous cargo in Garland Greene (Steve Buscemi), a serial killer whose methods are so ghastly they make Jeffrey Dahmer look like the Galloping Gourmet.

Shocked to see Garland all trussed up like Hannibal the Cannibal, the Virus sets him free. "A terrible way to treat a national treasure," he tsks-tsks.

"Love your work," adds Cameron.

Cameron, it turns out, is a former Army Ranger with a chestful of ribbons and a strict code of honor, who must now pretend to be behind the others, while secretly working to derail his mission. Meanwhile on the ground, a federal marshal (John Cusack) does his best to foil the escape while stopping an overzealous DEA agent (Colm Meaney) from blowing up the plane.

Meaney, so superb in "The Snapper," is annoyingly shrill here, but Cusack's Dostoevsky-quoting lawman proves a wonderful foil. Buscemi -- not quite flying with his seat in the upright position -- shares best-acting honors with Cage, whose character combines the inept petty thief and devoted husband he played so hilariously in "Raising Arizona" and the butt-kicking man of action from "The Rock."

While muscle-flexing, psychotic strife and the customary fireballs dominate the scenario, the picture also makes much ado over a stuffed bunny and makes references to irony and origami. Rosenberg, who wrote "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead," is no stranger to hipster violence. But he's not out for major blood. "Con Air" is violent, but no more graphic, perhaps even less so, than the dino dining scenes in "The Lost World."

As with most flights, this one has some bumpy spots and it goes on way too long, but first-time feature director Simon West is one heck of a good pilot. West, a British maker of documentaries, TV commercials and music videos, keeps the bird straight and level before it's finally engulfed in chaos.

"Con Air," which marks Jerry Bruckheimer's first solo outing since partner Don Simpson's death, is about social redemption, but it's propelled by our universal fear of flying. The nightmare at 30,000 feet isn't just that we'll crash and burn, but that we have no control, that we are essentially the pilot's prisoners.

Con Air is rated R for violence and profanity.