Con Air (1997)

I first saw this film on a bus to a school camp in the country.  I think it might have been the only film the bus driver had, and we might have watched it more than once.  Bizarrely, the entire group on the bus enjoyed watching this.  I say this is bizarre because it was a bus full of teenage girls who didn't generally seek out this sort of film.  Or perhaps I just really enjoyed it and projected my enjoyment on to everyone else.

It's not the best film.  I realise this.  It's barely even a good film.  I was blinded by my discovery of John Cusack (whose entire film catalogue I subsequently made it my mission to see, and some further evidence of this will come up in later entries).  But I really enjoyed this film when I saw it the first time.  And the second time.  And the twentieth time.  I went out and bought it on VHS and watched it repeatedly.  I thought Nicholas Cage was a bit lame, but who cares when John Cusack, John Malkovich and Steve Buscemi are around to make up for it?

By the time I reached this in my current movie library viewing crusade, it had definitely been more than 5 years since I'd seen it.  Unlike Clueless before it, this one hasn't aged as well for me (though John Cusack is still as wonderful as ever).  I like my crappy action movies, don't get me wrong.  More of them will pop up as this project continues.  But sometimes it can be difficult get past the fact that they're not great.  I wonder what I would think of this film if the nostalgia factor were removed...

Final Thought:  It seems as though they thought that "Put the bunny back in the box" somehow carried the same ominous feeling as "I'll be back."

Up Next:  Cool Runnings (1993)

Clueless (1995)

It's proven time and time again that successful teen movies don't talk down to teenagers.  Don't treat them as though they're not intelligent, curious and empathetic.  I know that media has changed since the 90s, but none of the movies I loved as a teenager were condescending. 

Would you really label this film as being aimed at teenagers though?  Perhaps it’s more a film that features teenagers.  It certainly resonates if you watch it as a teenager, especially if you happened to be one in the 1990s.  But while it’s embedded in the decade in which it was made, it manages to be enduring.  Watching it today, I enjoy it just as much.  Granted though, my enjoyment of this film has evolved as the years have gone by.

I eventually attempted to read "Emma", to get a broader sense of the story on which this film is based, but I ended up gradually wandering away from that book until I stopped reading it all together.  It didn't quite grab me.  I was probably not in the right frame of mind to be reading it at the time.

Going back and watching this film decades after seeing it for the first time, it doesn't suffer from seeming dated.  That's not to say that it hasn't dated, but the story is strong enough and timeless enough that it doesn't matter.  If anything, it hams up its 90s-ness so much that the more dated it is, the more I enjoy it.

Final Thought: Let's not talk about the TV series.

Up Next:  Con Air (1997)