This movie is my ultimate guilty pleasure. It's inane, manipulative, has hyperactive cutting, a ton of glaring inaccuracies (pointless to even discuss or debate), and probably 29 other glaring faults. And why in every dramatic slow-mo emo shot are there 3 helicopters flying in unison overhead? What's the point of having 3 helicopters flying really close together? Who cares! It looks cool. If one day I am having a heartfelt talk with my daughter, I hope there are 3 helicopters flying overhead to really 'bring it home'!

Despite it all, I still love watching this movie. Anytime it is on TV I can watch it 'til the end. Bruce Willis does a great job doing his Bruce Willis 'thing' (be a smart alecky tough guy), and the supporting cast is really great. Steve Buschemi in particular gets the best lines.

I think it was also conceived by suits in a studio office (no really), which is I guess another strike against it. Yet only a bunch of suits could come up with a 'high concept' like this (so high it's almost bordering on parody.) And only a director like Michael Bay could make it. He's far more suited to these types of movies, rather than big historical epics like PEARL HARBOR (which I really, really disliked.)

I read somewhere once that this movie is as close as Hollywood gets to pure cinema, in that it is basically completely divorced from reality of any kind. Is that good or bad? I don't know. I do think if you're going to ditch convention and any semblance to reality, you may as well go all the way. It's better than having something that is a confused mess that tries to be different things (Pearl Harbor.) There will be no 'it could really happen!' here.

So after all this, believe it or not I am going to give this movie a big fat whopping 8. Why? Because IMO it unabashedly succeeds at what it tries to set out to be, whatever that is. That makes no sense, since I am basically saying by all logical accounts this movie may actually suck, yet I am giving it a 8. But hey I loved this movie.

Macho's in a non-stop action movie with lot's of explosions. This is ladies and gentlemen; the ultimate guy movie.

The movie is filled with crazy over the top characters such as Pinball, Johnny-23, The Marietta Mangler and Sally-can't-dance. It has some of the best casting in a movie I have ever seen. The actors are all simply perfect for their roles. Especially John Malkovich and Steve Buscemi are excellent as always and their characters are the best of the movie even though Buscemi's character wasn't really needed at all. The introduction of the prisoners at the beginning of the movie is completely over the top but I love it! It possibly is one of my favorite scene's in cinema history when we first meet Cyrus the Virus and Diamond Dog, the music really sets the mood in that scene.

Of course the story is not important, it's all about explosions, shootings, fist fights and everything in between. But dislike other action movies "Con Air" actually has a story that I like, even though it's completely over the top. Although I think that the movie might had been better of without the Poe's family scene's and storyline, even though I still sort of like the emotional scene's between them. Also I think that Nicholas Cage is a bit too much of a good guy in the movie, not only does he help his friend on board, he even finds time to try and save all the cops their lives and that of the bunny present for his daughter.

A good thing is the excellent soundtrack by Trevor Rabin and Mark Mancina that gives the movie an extra 'cool' feeling.

One little point of critic is that the editing isn't always great. But I can live with that...

Perfect entertainment in a crazy over the top non-stop action movie! There are better action movies out there but not much.

I don't care if it's a popcorn movie by intention. It's still a darn good movie. One that I can watch many times.

"The characters are predictable". Someone took this as a negative, but the reviewer was quite far from proving his point. Well, in case of Rock Hound, you can't really say that, can you? And neither can you in case of Harry Stomper. Would you say that Colonel Willie Sharp was predictable? Or Dan Truman? Not so, sorry.

True, the story is a little far fetched. Then again no one remembers "Deep Impact", which was more or less about the same event, except written and performed so insignificantly, it felt into oblivion.

The jokes. The funny situations. The funny dialogs. "Gee, lady, I just came here to drill". "So did I!" This movie has the cinematographic equivalent of salt and pepper, and just about right mix of the laughing gas and tear gas.

For a long time I didn't know that, but I have been turning into a Michael Bay's fan. I saw him 2 times in this movie. He acted pretty well as a 2nd level supporting actor, but his real value is in directing and producing. I never expected Transformes to get my attention, and they did, which in itself is a big achievement.