Relive the spectacle of Nicolas Cage at the height of his insane powers as Honest Trailers tackles the cheesy '90s action extravaganza Con Air. In the 1980s, Cage established himself as one of Hollywood's most interesting and at times daring actors with his memorable performances in movies like Birdy, Moonstruck and Raising Arizona. In the '90s, Cage reached an artistic peak with his work in the intense literary adaptation Leaving Las Vegas, for which he won the Best Actor Oscar.
Though Leaving Las Vegas may have seen Cage at the height of his legitimate acting powers, the movie is not necessarily his best-remembered accomplishment from the '90s. Instead, most fans recall the "holy trinity" of Cage movies: The Rock, Con Air and Face/Off. These films saw Cage crossing over to become a genuine action star, while still flexing his acting muscles by making seemingly insane choices. Of course, those films are also remembered for being gigantic, self-indulgent movies full of now-hilarious '90s action tropes.
In its latest Honest Trailers installment, Screen Junkies takes a look back at one of the films that marked Peak Cage and also exemplifies everything great and terrible about '90s action movies in general. Released in 1997, Con Air stars Cage as Cameron Poe, an ex-con and former Army Ranger who finds himself trapped on a prisoner transport plane with a group of hugely eccentric and terrifying criminals, all of whom sport colorful nicknames. See the Honest Trailer for Con Air below:
"How did we survive Peak Nic Cage?" the trailer asks, remembering how Cage unleashed the crazy in his trio of '90s schlock action classics. But Con Air has more going for it than just Cage acting insane while sporting the most bizarre Southern accent ever attempted. It also features amazingly cheesy '90s action directed by Simon West, the man who made the original RickRoll video. And it features a whole bunch of brilliant character actors, from John Malkovich and Dave Chappelle to Ving Rhames and Steve Buscemi, all playing unhinged criminals stuck together on a plane. This Honest Trailer doesn't so much make fun of Con Air as celebrate it, while also pointing out exactly how over-the-top and bizarre the Hollywood movies of the late '90s were.
Of course, a lot has changed in Hollywood since movies like Con Air ruled the multiplexes. Superhero movies rule now, and though they are themselves spectacular, they just don't offer the same cheesy thrills as the classics of '90s action cinema. It's easy to mock a movie like Con Air with its silly tropes and over-the-top performances, but it's also easy to be nostalgic for what now seems like a simpler time.
Source: Screen Junkies