Metacritic reviews

Con Air, a summer blast of a movie, teaches us many things: Producer Jerry Bruckheimer never met an explosion, a car crash or 20 tough guys talking trash he didn't like. Nicolas Cage is one of our most enjoyable screen heroes. As long as you're funny, you can literally get away with murder in a movie.

This is a movie that knows it is absurd, and does little to deny it.

Apart from not knowing to quit while it's ahead, Con Air provides quite an exciting flight prior to its crash and burn.

The colorfully written Con Air is a solid chip off "The Rock," pumped up and very well cast, with the prettiness and polish of advertising art.

Con Air is entertaining in an extravagantly decadent sort of way. It just isn't a movie.

How's the movie? Big, loud, brutal and stupid, that's how it is. But then, you don't need a critic to tell you that -- anyone with a grade-school education who's seen the previews can figure that out.

The saving grace of Con Air is its sense of its own absurdity.

This movie is a perfect example of what's wrong with many big-budget films today: no characters, no intelligence, and, worst of all, little fun.

Mega-budget action extravaganzas don't get much sillier than this.

There's nary a hint of suspense in West's film, though, mainly because he loudly trumpets the upcoming disasters so early in the film.