Con Air (1997)

Buckle up for "a pure adrenaline rush!" (Sixty Second Preview) as producer Jerry Bruckheimer's explosive hit Con Air detonates on Blu-ray Disc®. Starring acclaimed actors Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Malkovich, this edge-of-your-seat thrill ride soars to new heights in this remarkable format. A prison parolee (Cage) -- on his way to freedom -- faces impossible odds when the maximum security transport plane he's on is skyjacked by the ten most vicious criminals in the country. Experience death-defying stunts and mind-blowing special effects in eye-popping 1080p while jet engines roar and turbulent action rocks your world in 5.1 48 kHz, 24-bit uncompressed audio. The excitement takes off and never lets up with Blu-ray™ High Definition!

Con Air is proof that the slick, absurdly overblown action formula of Hollywood mega-producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun, Days of Thunder, The Rock, Crimson Tide) lives on, even after Simpson's druggy death. (Read Charles Fleming's exposé, High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Excess, for more about that.)

Nicolas Cage, sporting a disconcerting mane of hair, is a wrongly convicted prisoner on a transport plane with a bunch of infamously psychopathic criminals, including head creep Cyrus the Virus (John Malkovich), black militant Diamond Dog (Ving Rhames), and serial killer Garland Greene (Steve Buscemi, making the most of his pallid, rodent-like qualities). Naturally, the convicts take over the plane; meanwhile, on the ground, a US marshal (John Cusack) and a DEA agent (Colm Meaney) try to figure out what to do.

As is the postmodern way, the movie displays a self-consciously ironic awareness that its story and characters are really just excuses for a high-tech cinematic thrill ride. Best idea: the filmmakers persuaded the owners of the legendary Sands Hotel in Las Vegas to let them help out with the structure's demolition by crashing their plane into it.

--Jim Emerson