The Reel Rejects - CON AIR (1997) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!!

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Starting point is 00:01:26 I'm ready to board that. the convict airline. Let's do this. All right, John is a little wired and he's a little tired. And I think he needs, a little appreciation. Let us know what Nicholas Cage that one is in. What do you think? Oh, it's definitely bad lieutenant.

Starting point is 00:01:44 Definitely. We're going to get right into this. Let's go. Oh, my goodness. By the way, if you guys are listening to us on Apple or Spotify, if you don't mind dropping us a rating, we sure. Appreciate it. Also, if you want to look as cool as Janitio, myself and the rest of us at Reject Nation,

Starting point is 00:02:04 please don't mind hitting over to Reject Nation shop.com and help supporting the channel. We got so many cool options over there. That we do. That was a fun ride. I know. We got to keep it tight today. We only got a handful of minutes to talk. Well, you let me know when, you let me quickly know when I need to get into the movie trivia,

Starting point is 00:02:24 because I'll just spit out a few quick facts. Sure. Yeah, yeah. But just really quickly, that was a fun roller coaster ride. I like how frenetically paced it was. It wasn't, I mean, there were, there were some, there were definitely interesting characters in it. I love Steve Bouchemey. I thought John Malkovich was an incredible villain.

Starting point is 00:02:45 I thought he was, I'm not going to compare him, but just in the vein of like a Hans Groomer, gruber, excuse me. Sure. Very intelligent, poetic. You know, unhinged and could be violent at any point in time. But I would just like, you know, compare it in that sense. But I loved his performance. I really like John Cusack in this.

Starting point is 00:03:08 And, and Nicholas Cage, yeah, everyone was good. Everyone was good. But I'm just like, those were my standouts. But Nicholas Cage, for as ridiculous as that accent was, I didn't care. I still loved his performance and his reactions in the film. He's so committed. Yeah. And like, the accent is consistent.

Starting point is 00:03:23 So at a certain point, yeah, you just surrender to it. Yeah. And again, as a little, I appreciated that John Q, even though I know I was like, and if I get a little ripped in the comments, it is what it is. But I appreciate it at the beginning when I said, this is self-defense to me. I mean, there are laws in this country where, like, you know, people who have, you know, done self-defense have still gone to prison. And I get it. He is a weapon because he was in the army and all that. I was wondering if anybody has that legal knowledge or army knowledge, like, is that a real thing?

Starting point is 00:03:55 I took out a knife and was trying to get on so. No, it's a gray enough area. And at the same time, like, I get the whole, like, you are a lethal weapon. You probably could have just disarmed this guy. But at the same time, you get jumped by three dudes in the rain. Like, yeah. Yeah, but once the guy took out, once the guy took out the knife, that's, like, for me, that's the, like, that's it for me. But I get it.

Starting point is 00:04:17 We don't have a movie if it doesn't happen. But having said that I do appreciate at least John Kusek had that line in there when he was talking to Malloy and the other guy. Like, I could have. been any one of us if our wife and our family was involved. So I like that line. He was like seeing the gray area, as you mentioned. And again, I just love how intuitive and intelligent John Cusack's character was, especially with Malloy and such a negative character. One of those, you just want to pit over the face. You know, negative character like that. So I got, I know we don't have a lot of time, but a asshole guy. A fun, awesome film. What do you think? Yeah, no, this was an

Starting point is 00:04:50 absolute blast. This is, I can see every ounce of the cult love this. This is, I can see every ounce of the cult love that this movie has because this this movie is one of those that kind of toes both lines like it hits the ground running and you know it's big action it's like one long chase almost yeah and uh and yeah you have all these colorful wild characters and somehow everything fits together and it's like high octane and off the walls and yet there are these interesting little interludes and moments that pepper everything that are either like a little bit heartfelt or a little bit amusing or in the case of Steve Buscemi like they draw you in and you're like this is a whole other tone you know for this like those little bits that that subplot that was happening around Steve Buscemi was

Starting point is 00:05:34 always fascinating to me because out of everyone in the movie he really felt like he embodied the mindset of some you know classically deranged serial killer and like committed wholly to that and it's it's fascinating in a movie like this because yeah it's like a lot of people are on you know the action movie level of height and I would usually expect that from, uh, from Malkovich. And I feel like Malkovich is like right in the middle where like, yeah, he is clearly the mastermind and he has the sort of gravity to command that role. And yet he is still also, you know, his own eccentric flavor. He is, yeah, eloquent, but also volatile. And, uh, and yeah, just the who's who of actors, uh, along the waving rames and all that. Um, uh, what's her name? Rachel Tikotin, uh, the guy who plays Bubba and Forrest Gump, whose name my mother. learn, because I've seen him in a few things that we've watched here. Free Willie, he was also in. Yeah, like, this was a blast.

Starting point is 00:06:29 And Nicholas Cage, like effortlessly cool. I like that this was, again, pretty straightforward in that, yeah, you see, this, this felt like a more classic, a little bit earlier period action movie, you know, like a 90s or 2000s action movie in that, yeah, you have, you know, he's Army Ranger, we know what his background is, he's got this wife, this family that is just beginning to blossom. and bad happens and now all he wants to do is get back to them. I love that in the first, you know, five or ten minutes in the movie, we spent like a good amount of time just writing these letters back and forth, like really letting that breathe

Starting point is 00:07:04 a little bit, not getting excessive because once we get to the actual like plot and they're starting to transport the prisoners, then, you know, we're, hit the ground running. And yeah, QSack, I really enjoyed watching him. I really liked his presence and his energy and the way he tempers kind of the middle ground between everyone. And you've got the asshole D.E.A. There's so many classic elements to this, and then you combine that with just huge stunts and really, you know, fun, crazy wild action going from the plane to, you know, this, this, you know, abandoned airfield with all this shrapnel in it and stuff like that, and then landing in the Vegas strip. Like, it's every bit as over the top as I expected, but it also had a certain amount of focus that I appreciate that they could have easily gotten lost, that could have easily gone a ride.

Starting point is 00:07:50 This is like every bit as fun and cheesy as you want, but also it's like a pretty well done, solid, straightforward action. Yeah, no, it's got hardened some depth to it too. I mean, I think it was important to establish that at the beginning with the letters between his daughter and back and forth. It added some emotional depth. And I think, you know, the writers and the filmmakers knew like, okay, this is going to be such a frenetic pace of action and over the top cheese

Starting point is 00:08:13 that it's important that we add this nuance here at the beginning. Yeah, got to make us care. Yeah, no, I appreciate that they did that. for sure, because it got me, I mean, I love Nicholas Cage, but that got me emotionally invested in his character for sure. Once we got to that point and what he was about, obviously. And the back and forth of him and Cusack being like, why is he choosing this on a day such as today where all these personal stakes? July 14th, put the bunny down. Yeah, yeah, no, no, it was important to us. Put the bunny down. Yeah, yeah. You want trivia stuff a little bit? Yeah, yeah, really, really quick.

Starting point is 00:08:45 I know we got to go here, but. Reject Nation, I just want to take a quick second to thank today's sponsor, Because as a business owner, I am surprisingly not the greatest at handling and tracking finances. It just doesn't come naturally to me. I can definitely have an oversight when it comes to certain things. And I'm sure you can relate with this. I hate the feeling of paying for something that I just haven't thought about in a while or worse. I just keep forgetting to cancel. Procrastination is the name of the game.

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Starting point is 00:10:24 subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash rejects that's rocketmoney.com slash rejects it's a great way to support the channel and a great way to support your bank account heck it would even just help us out if you wanted to just click the link and poke around generous thing that you could do for us and for you to win win i mean it's funny it's one of those movies that you could like talk about forever and yet in a way it is quite straightforward and it is just about the ride and it is just about like again all these flavors coming together and it had just enough of that Hollywood magic like you will believe in God I will get you that needle

Starting point is 00:10:54 you will be okay you will survive this gunshot wound and like yeah it's just enough of everything yeah in other words it was it was a fun right just read a couple really quick John Malkovich was unhappy during production because the script was being rewritten virtually every day and he had no idea how his character was going to turn out having said that I still thought he did a good job of just making the character his own

Starting point is 00:11:18 and just like, you know, improvising on the nod. I mean, because I can understand as an actor, it's not easy to do with rewrites constantly happening. So he did an amazing job. And he gets tons of presents. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:11:29 Like this is going to. Memorable ass. Oh, yeah, for sure. And the way it goes out at the end, too. Oh, my God. That was a memorable. A fire truck and he gets head crushed. Like, oh.

Starting point is 00:11:38 That was memorable as hell. You're going to be shocked by this one. Let's go. Dave Chappelle improvised many of his lines. I never. I never would have guessed that. Dave Chappelle. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:11:50 Okay. Two more really quick. The site of the planes flying in low formation over the strip during filming caused a number of Las Vegas to call the police. Sure. Oh my God. Yeah. Because if you mean, if you see that, you're like, what the hell is it? It's not like you know.

Starting point is 00:12:06 So they did some of that actually over the strip. Yeah. I mean, it's 1997. It's not like you can put a social media post. Hey, Las Vegas, just letting you know, this is a movie. we're going to be flying low today. Please don't call the police in panic. This is 97.

Starting point is 00:12:20 Yeah, I mean, I'm sure it'd be hard to let people know now in that way that gets to everybody, but back then especially. And that's interesting because I was wondering that whole scene like what's miniatures, what's actually over Vegas, what's actually like on the streets of Vegas. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So last one here.

Starting point is 00:12:37 The face. So this face off and The Rock are considered by many Nicholas Cage fans to be his holy trinity of action films. There we go. I got to see The Rock. Oh, I love that movie. We'll do one more since that was fast. This is a fast one, too.

Starting point is 00:12:52 It was released in June 1997, the same months as Nicholas Cage's other actions films hit Face Off 1997, which came out a few weeks later. Whoa. This film, the films were shot consecutively from the summer of 96 to spring 97 with the two productions nearly overlapping at one point, damn. Cage was quite a busy man. And that's also tough. too, because I assume you've seen Face Off, right?

Starting point is 00:13:16 I watched it on this very channel. Awesome. Check out that reaction if you haven't already. But the point I'm making is to have to do two. I mean, that is such an incredible role that he, I mean, he was great in this, but in Faceoff, he's literally playing two characters. Oh, man. But also to the different accents and, I mean.

Starting point is 00:13:33 Of the Tao of Kay's and like the way his unique acting style manifests across all these different movies. But having to go into two different roles, or I guess three different roles when you get into the technicality of it, consecutively going back and forth between Zet. That's tough. That's really tough. And then with the different accent as well and the Alabama accent. Well, and that's the thing is in a movie like this, you know, there are, again, Nicholas Cage has his heightened persona and yet there's something about his acting technique where the sincerity and the commitment still shines through no matter how big it might be or no matter how odd the choice might be. And, you know, sometimes that increases the meme.

Starting point is 00:14:11 And sometimes that makes things work in spite. of the odds and I feel like this is one of those where it like they got his hair blowing in so many shots and you know it's there's the accent and all that and yet I still bought it and I still loved watching him. Yeah no like and really quick before we go there was this

Starting point is 00:14:28 wind lightning ghost writer no it's not the greatest film it makes me laugh but it's that one and then there's also may have my soul but they don't have my spirit hey because of his charisma and his energy I just I don't care I love it love Nicholas Cage anyways

Starting point is 00:14:43 Let us know in the comments. Is this your favorite Nicholas Cage movie? Is it up there? What are your favorite cage of Nicholas films? We'd love to know. We thank you so much if you made it this far in the reaction. We always appreciate it. Love you guys so much.

Starting point is 00:14:58 Janizio, my brother from another mother, do you have any... Do you have any Nicholas Cage things you'd like to add? No, Andrew, I think I'm good. I'm just going to go home. I'm going to hug my bunny close, and I'm going to think about the next cage. We get to watch you on the channel.

Starting point is 00:15:11 Just don't shoot it. Put the bunny down, Joan. Anyways, Don't move her the bunny gets it. Guys, thank you so much. We appreciate it. And we shall see you on the next one. Cheers.

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The Reel Rejects - CON AIR (1997) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!!

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