SPOILERS:
John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton play two air traffic controllers who develop a sort of rivalry and are constantly trying to one up each other. Oh there's more to the movie-a lot-but that is the central focus.
Pushing Tin sounded great on paper. It's one of those movies that has a great cast and a plot that sounds fascinating. But the movie as a whole is just OK. Not dreadful, definitely interesting but something seems a bit lacking. I wouldn't call this a great movie but it's moderately involving although it develops slowly.
Cusack and Thornton both turn in good performances as do Jolie and Blanchet as the wives. I really really thought Billy Bob was incredible and he jumped out at me the most. It was weird watching this because it came out a long time ago and seeing Jolie and Blanchett was a kick. I thought they were both great in somewhat small roles though Cate's was larger then Jolie's. The part of the confused Nick could have been tailor made for Cusack but it is Billy Bob who comes close to stealing the film at times as the complex and quiet Russell.
Pushing Tin, even though it had a great cast, with complex characters doing fascinating work, wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be. First off, it takes a rather long time to get going(there were times the movie didn't really seem to have much of a plot) and even once it does get going it drags at times. And the brief bits of the air traffic controllers themselves, hard at work, were so involving I wished there were more of those scenes. Ultimately the rivalry between Nick and Russell was not all that interesting, it was more on the obnoxious side and came this close to actually being rather dull. It did become interesting when Nick goes to visit Russell in Colorado. In fact the scene by the water is just great. But it takes SO very long to get there and a lot of what happens along the way isn't terribly interesting. I didn't like Nick very much at all through most of the movie although that changed a bit after the above mentioned scene with Thornton. But there was a flatness to a lot of the movie, and a lot of it didn't seem to flow real well either. I was rather disappointed.
Ultimatelty I wish the story had focused less on the power struggle of Nich and Russell and more on the relationships between all the people. The moments where the audience sees these people on the job are thrilling but there's not enough of them. And I wish there had been more characters and a different sort of main plot. I don't think this is dreadful or even bad. I would give it a 6 or 6.5 of 10. I don't think this is the type of film where one would turn it off mid stream but I do think it could have been better. Slightly above average is my vote.
John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton play two air traffic controllers who develop a sort of rivalry and are constantly trying to one up each other. Oh there's more to the movie-a lot-but that is the central focus.
Pushing Tin sounded great on paper. It's one of those movies that has a great cast and a plot that sounds fascinating. But the movie as a whole is just OK. Not dreadful, definitely interesting but something seems a bit lacking. I wouldn't call this a great movie but it's moderately involving although it develops slowly.
Cusack and Thornton both turn in good performances as do Jolie and Blanchet as the wives. I really really thought Billy Bob was incredible and he jumped out at me the most. It was weird watching this because it came out a long time ago and seeing Jolie and Blanchett was a kick. I thought they were both great in somewhat small roles though Cate's was larger then Jolie's. The part of the confused Nick could have been tailor made for Cusack but it is Billy Bob who comes close to stealing the film at times as the complex and quiet Russell.
Pushing Tin, even though it had a great cast, with complex characters doing fascinating work, wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be. First off, it takes a rather long time to get going(there were times the movie didn't really seem to have much of a plot) and even once it does get going it drags at times. And the brief bits of the air traffic controllers themselves, hard at work, were so involving I wished there were more of those scenes. Ultimately the rivalry between Nick and Russell was not all that interesting, it was more on the obnoxious side and came this close to actually being rather dull. It did become interesting when Nick goes to visit Russell in Colorado. In fact the scene by the water is just great. But it takes SO very long to get there and a lot of what happens along the way isn't terribly interesting. I didn't like Nick very much at all through most of the movie although that changed a bit after the above mentioned scene with Thornton. But there was a flatness to a lot of the movie, and a lot of it didn't seem to flow real well either. I was rather disappointed.
Ultimatelty I wish the story had focused less on the power struggle of Nich and Russell and more on the relationships between all the people. The moments where the audience sees these people on the job are thrilling but there's not enough of them. And I wish there had been more characters and a different sort of main plot. I don't think this is dreadful or even bad. I would give it a 6 or 6.5 of 10. I don't think this is the type of film where one would turn it off mid stream but I do think it could have been better. Slightly above average is my vote.