This past weekend we watched 2003’s Elf and Con Air from 1997. One was decent, the other only appeared to be on the surface. Can you guess which is which? Will Ferrell as an oversized, mixuped Santa helper wanna be or Nic Cage as an unjustly imprisoned ex-Marine trapped on a plane full of the worst loonies in America’s prisons.
Okay, I won’t make you guess: Con Air was surprisingly the one worth watching. Actually, worth watching again, I think this was the third time for me. The plot and characters were straight out of the Hollywood play book but the acting, staging and special effects trumped them. Not particularly Cage, though, he looks really strange with stringy long hair and rock-like facial expressions.
John Cusack, John Malkovich, Ving Rhames, Mykelti Williamson, Steve Buscemi, even Rachel Ticotin, Colm Meaney and Dave Chappelle decided to make a film despite a mostly useless script by Scott Rosenberg. Simon West (the first Lara Croft) took full advantage of the Jerry Bruckenheimer big boom explosions shop and added an interesting lighting scheme.
recommended
What went wrong with Elf? Hard to say. Ferrell at this point is kind of like Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy or Robin Williams at their manic primes, all over the screen and always able to take over any scene. Probably the script from David Berenbaum (speaking of Murphy, Berenbaum also wrote the script for The Haunted Mansion) and the directing of Jon Favreau weren’t enough to overcome the horrendous core concept: Ferrell as a tot sneaks into Santa’s bag one Christmas Eve and for some reason can’t be returned to his parents, remaining at the North Pole thinking he’s just an oversized elf to the age of 30.
At which point the “truth” becomes clear to him and, voila, he’s told who his real father is. Off we go to Manhattan and the completely different, angry, mean James Caan. Sure, Ferrell has plenty of bits to get laughs but the idea here is to make a movie. M-o-v-i-e. Anchorman is coming on cable soon, hopefully will be better.
not recommended
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