Pushing Tin

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, John Cusack, Angelina Jolie and Cate Blanchett. 122 min, PG-13

The sole purpose of this film is to take one of the world's most stressful jobs and make it seem fun, and the film would have succeed, had it ended after 35 minutes. The film revolves around the rivalry of two air traffic controllers, Nick Falzone (Cusack) and Russell Bell (Thornton). Falzone the wiley vetren, while Bell is an on the edge controller who deliberatly flys planes within inches of each other, for the hell of it.

The conflict between the two men is supposed to make us care more about both the characters and the occupation, but fails miserably. Their constant face-offs grow tiresome after the first few spats. On top of all this, the fights end up causing Falzone to go over the deep end. I'm not sure, but if a man can't handle a few insults should he be in charge of thousand pound machines carrying hundreds of people?

Angelina Jolie and Cate Blanchett are equally disappointing in what the writers want us to believe are complex roles, but just come across as backgrounders to the ridiculos fights between their love interests.

Perhaps I was being a little hard on the film because of my expectations, considering the top notch cast and writers (Glen and Les Charles of televisions' Cheers). However, with all this in mind the film was all in all one that crash landed right after takeoff. Rating: C

-Charles Boyes

Don't agree with my review, tell me at [email protected]

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