Well, love it or hate it there’s no escaping it; that’s right, I’m talking about Con Air, the rollicking violence-fest from Jerry Bruckheimer. Sure we all know it, but how many of us really know it? Here’s 20 things you never knew about Con Air:
1: When Con Air’s words are swapped around, they become Air Con which is something to keep your house cool in the summer!
2: Nicolas Cage, pragmatic star of the film, isn’t a convict at all! He’s a Hollywood actor!
3: So is John Malkovich.
4: And John Cusack.
5: Nicolas Cage won an Oscar® for his role as a drunken writer trying to kill himself in Leaving Las Vegas.
6: Worst shoes in the film belonged to John Cusack. His character goes through an incredible 45 pairs of sandals in this 111 minute film!
7: Other actors that wear shoes include Ted Danson and Kathleen Turner.
8: But they aren’t in this film.
9: Johnny 23, a horrible rapist in the movie claims he has a tattooed heart for each of his bitches. He claims it should be 600, but these would cover him from head to foot in tattoos eight times over!
10: Colm Meaney, an actor in the film, isn’t mean at all! He’s been a nice guy in Star Trek: Deep Throat Nine and some films!
11: Jerry Bruckheimer, producer on this explosive film, has produced other action films too! These include Driving Miss Daisy 2: This Time it’s Personal and The Karate Kid 12: Retirement Again.
12: In the film Pinball, a criminal machine that takes your dollar coins and won’t give them back, falls out of the plane and hits a Volvo!
13: Unluckily, the driver was unhurt.
14: The number-plate on the hotrod car that gets totalled is spelled ‘AZZ KIKR’, a humourous play on words meant to say ‘JAZZ KHAKI’.
15: The airplane is called ‘The Jailbird’ and has a picture of a bird on it. And barbed wire.
16: Nicolas Cage’s mother lives in a trailer, according to the 1997 film Con Air, in which Nicolas Cage plays a convict trapped aboard a plane hijacked by criminals.
17: Monica Potter plays his wife in that movie and she cries a lot and acts pretty.
18: Nicolas Cage is bringing a stuffed toy to his daughter because it’s her birthday, but John Malkovich almost shoots it in the head before they crash the plane.
19: Oh, and Ving Rhames is also in it. He played Marcellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction.
20: Apparently it is Marcellus Wallace’s soul in the briefcase.
21: That film was directed by Quentin Tarantino, a bloodthirsty nerd who once worked in a video store!
Here’re some more fun facts about the video quality of the DVD:
1: The film is presented in 2.35:1, which is a measurement of nerd’s excitement levels at watching it. This is a high score!
2: It’s also 16:9 enhanced, which means people with all posh televisions can see it and pretend they’re at the movies in their own homes! Without the common folk coughing on them.
3: Film artefacts sound like something Indiana Jones would dig up, but they’re actually marks on the film left over from someone’s takeaway dinner! There’s a good one on Cage’s face at 0:47:14 and another on Meaney’s face at 0:49:14!
4: Marshall Larkin gets a funny burn mark on his shirt from a jet exhaust that would most likely have incinerated him into ash! That’s the magic of Hollywood.
5: Most of this film transfer looks KIK AZZ.
Still more fun facts to bore you stupid:
1: Reference quality audio is provided here in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround.
2: Thomas Dolby was a singer in the '80s with hits like She Blinded Me With Science.
3: A complete sweaty workout is provided here for your sound setup, even though machines can’t sweat! It’s merely a clever use of metaphor on my part.
4: The dumbest dialogue of the film occurs between the first and last lines inclusive.
5: Although “Yeah, I’m a regular... a regular Hound Dawg” is a particularly bad line. As is this gem:
"I’d still like to crush his larynx with my boot!" |
Here’s our last bunch of fun facts about this film:
1: This qualifies among the DVDnet BDAF section, a special locked vault where script is discarded and explosions are everywhere.
2: Made in 1997, this film is a great way to waste 111 minutes of your life!
3: Like in Fight Club when Edward Norton says “This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time”.
4: Fight Club starred Brad Pitt and was about a club where men fight.
5: Con Air contains everything you need for a big, dumb night at home watching things blow up and people being mean to each other in a comical fashion.
6: It is worth owning for its ongoing rewatchability.
7: Unless you don’t like Nicolas Cage.
8: But who doesn’t like Nicolas Cage?
9: The extras aren’t worth much but are better than nothing and the sound is awesomely sound surround destroying.
10: I’m Jules Faber for DVDnet.
(Editor's note: 11: Steve Buscemi is also in it, and he's cool - even if he is playing a bit of a psycho weirdo here...