#rachel ticotin

[pedroam-bang]

Total Recall (1990)

[loveboatinsanity]

[theactioneer]

Total Recall (DC, 1990)

[frankenpagie]

6.2.24

[zerojeden]

[ad-j]

WATCHLIST 2023: Total Recall (90)

[spilladabalia]

Falling Down (1993), nazi surplus store scene

[spockvarietyhour]

Rachel Ticotin, in her second appearance here on Skyjacking Week

[duranduratulsa]

Up next on my 90's Fest Movie 🎬 🎞 🎥 🎦 📽 marathon...Total Recall (1990) on glorious vintage VHS 📼! #Movie #movies #scifi #actionadventure #totalrecall #arnoldschwarzenegger #SharonStone #michaelironside #rachelticotin #RonnyCox #MarshallBell #meljohnsonjr #DebbieLeeCarrington #ripdebbieleecarrington #RayBaker #roybrocksmith #robertcostanzo #RobertPicardo #joeunger #annelockhart #vintage #VHS #90s #90sfest #durandurantulsas4thannual90sfest

[abs0luteb4stard]

W A T C H I N G

[angel-maldonado-enthusiast]

Steal Big Steal Little (1995), dir. Andrew Davis.

[vintagewarhol]

[twenty-words-or-less]

Con Air

Summary: Paroled ex-con Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage) finds himself caught in a violent prison break en route to Nevada.

Very silly, very ‘90s action flick that does drag towards end but some performances great (Buscemi, mostly, and Cusack, accidentally).

Rating: 3.5/5

Photo credit: IMDb

[i-heart-schlock]

“You are what you do. A man is defined by his actions, not his memory”

[rookie-critic]

Con Air (1997, dir. Simon West) - review by Rookie-Critic

What an absolutely wild time the late '90s must have been that this was a big blockbuster production. 1997 alone was absolutely wild, with this, Event Horizon, Contact, Face/Off, and so many others dropping all within the same cycle around the sun. Studios were really just throwing absolutely anything at the wall to see what stuck, and sometimes it really paid off (Strarship Troopers), and other times it didn't (Speed 2: Cruise Control), and sometimes I think it landed right in the middle, somewhere between good and awful, where it's really riding that line, but is just self-aware enough to be incredibly entertaining, and that's where Con Air lives. You have Nic Cage there to bring the zaniness, to give us brilliant moments like the classic "put the bunny back in the box" scene, and the absolutely asinine premise completely backs him up and gives him as much room to play around in this bananas space as he wants. There are some side characters that also help the zaniness move itself right along (I'm lookin' at you, Danny Trejo and Dave Chappelle). The one-liners range from eye-roll inducing to exceedingly clever, and the action set pieces are big and bombastic and generally just a crazy, explosive good time. All of this is fun. It doesn't hold together in the slightest, but it is fun. However, you then have Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, and John Malkovich delivering absolutely great performances that aren't Cage's brand of "good by humorous proxy," they're actually just really good. I found myself slack-jawed from the whiplash between bonkers scenes of Cage using the body of a dead con to send a message to ground level (something that I really don't think would have actually worked, which is indicative of a lot of the stuff in this film), and these amazing scenes where Malkovich or Buscemi just get to interact with their environment or even just give a line read that is way above and beyond the quality of the line itself. I know that Malkovich, at this point in his career, has almost become a bit of a meme (possibly in part due to the general goofiness of his name, probably in part due to the 1999 cult classic film Being John Malkovich, which I don't think he ever really was able to reclaim himself from fully), but damn, he's just an amazing actor, and this is someone saying this in reference to his performance in Con Air, of all things!

I don't want to just rant my bias for goofy self-aware action films on this one, though. For one, I already did that recently with Plane (which Con Air is vastly more ridiculous than), and two, there are quite a few problematic things in this film [TW AHEAD: mentions of rape]. I think firstly is Danny Trejo's character in general, who is a con doing time for raping 23 women, possibly more. His entire arc as a character is that there is one female guard that is a hostage onboard the plane, and Trejo wants nothing more than to... well, you get the idea. Granted, everyone else in the film, even the other criminally insane convicts, try to prevent him from accomplishing this, and the film is not so depraved as to ever actually let him get away with it, but it was something that was massively uncomfortable anytime it was given attention, and something that was, at the time, probably seen as "edgy" or "envelope pushing," but really was just incredibly problematic. The film is also just kind of vaguely racist any time a white character is referring to a nonwhite character, especially at the beginning. There's also a character, referred to in the end credits of the film as "Sally-Can't-Dance," (I have looked it up and the character's name is actually Ramon Martinez, which I think they're maybe only referred to as once in passing) that is a... problematic(?) portrayal of a character that is trans (again, while watching the film I wasn't entirely sure they were being presented as trans, but every article and piece of writing I've looked at refers to them as trans, so I'm going with that). I put a question mark next to problematic in the last sentence because, while Ramon never does or says anything that is inherently problematic or questionable, the way that everything surrounding them presents is like the butt of a joke, like we as the audience are meant to be laughing at "how ridiculous this character is." Maybe that's an incorrect read, but regardless it didn't sit right with me. It also has that classic, cheesy as all get out opening and closing with an incredibly sappy song that has no business being in a movie that is even remotely like Con Air. In this case, the song is the Dianne Warren-penned, Trisha Yearwood-performed "How Do I Live," which I had no idea was actually written for the film and was even nominated for an Oscar at that years' Academy Awards, where Con Air was also nominated for Best Sound. Granted, those are two fitting categories I guess, but the fact that this film was nominated for not one, but two Oscars is absolutely baffling. Getting back on track, it follows in the steps of songs like Top Gun's "Take My Breath Away" and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' "Everything I Do (I Do It for You)" as songs that clash in every possible way with the films they were written for, and it's an aspect of action films from that era that I am so, so happy has not carried over to the present. Despite all of these many faults, I can't lie and say that I didn't have a lot of fun with Con Air. I'm not sure I can recommend it in good faith, but if you're a fan of dumb, bananas action movies like I am, then Con Air basically fits the bill.

Score: 6/10

Currently unavailable to stream unless you have the Live TV add-on on Hulu. It is available to rent/purchase on digital (iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, etc.) and on Blu-ray & DVD through Disney/Buena Vista.

[lobbycards]

Man on Fire, Spanish lobby card. 2004