Running time: 123 minutes
Rating 7 out of 10
For those bearing a pathological fear of travel conducted 35,000 feet up in a metal tube, it might be worth securing alternative visual entertainment this week. This, without doubt, will do nothing to calm your nerves.
Because alongside commonplace worries of faulty landing gear, pilot heart attack and wings dropping off, the last thing you'll need is the idea that as your flight nears or departs the airport, it's in the hands of a bunch of weirdos pratting about in an Air Traffic Control Centre.
Pushing Tin, indeed, is the rather offhand colloquialism favoured of Air Traffic Controllers for their daily grind of manoeuvring plane-loads of human beings into safe airspace and landing trajectories.
And director Mike Newell (Four Weddings) has taken John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton and somehow turned this into a sort of Top Gun for computer geeks, as established ATC cool cat Nick Falzone (Cusack) stirs up an intense rivalry with chilled-out newcomer Russell Bell (Thornton).
Falzone is the king of the screens, a self-proclaimed expert in the art of lining up coloured blips on his radar with the utmost efficiency, and communicating info to the relevant pilots with a zippy, trademark delivery. He is The Zone.
And then Russell Bell strolls into the control room with a laid-back cowboy's drawl, a penchant for imparting the odd line of Zen philosophy and a feather in his hair. There's also a rumour spreading that he once took to a runway to see what a 747 tail-wind felt like.
Freak, as far as Falzone is concerned. But there's no disputing Russell's skill as a tin-pusher, and with the burgeoning admiration that this - and his sexy wife Mary (Angelina Jolie) - prompts in his colleagues, Nick becomes obsessed with a dangerous game of one-upmanship.
All of which results in an odd, fractured but not entirely disagreeable comedy drama that rests squarely on the shoulders of its leading men. And therein lies both the film's strengths, and its weaknesses.
Cusack's appeal - apparently innocent and charming but sufficiently off-kilter to betray a wayward darkness behind the eyes (much like Nic Cage) - makes him perfect for Falzone, who's not always a sympathetic character. It's also what has so far kept him removed from mainstream leads (again, like Cage).
And Thornton is rapidly becoming one of those acting chameleons who appears dramatically different every time you see him (think A Simple Plan, Armageddon, Sling Blade), and his laconic turn here is the ideal foil for his co-star's frenetic Falzone.
But with the thrust of the movie bolted to this personality clash and the ensuing battle of wills, scenes in which either actor is missing seem lacking in spark, strangely flat, a suspicion of time-filling, almost. Which means that those in supporting roles have something of a thankless task, though Cate Blanchett transforms well into Nick's Long Island wife Connie, and Jolie sets a new standard in voluptuousness as the seductive Mary Bell.
Flashes of real quality in place, then - an excellent head-to-head backed by some good ensemble scenes - but occasionally the wider subject matter intrudes, and you wonder quite whether this is the most suitable backdrop for what's essentially a very cinematic concept.
Because alongside commonplace worries of faulty landing gear, pilot heart attack and wings dropping off, the last thing you'll need is the idea that as your flight nears or departs the airport, it's in the hands of a bunch of weirdos pratting about in an Air Traffic Control Centre.
Pushing Tin, indeed, is the rather offhand colloquialism favoured of Air Traffic Controllers for their daily grind of manoeuvring plane-loads of human beings into safe airspace and landing trajectories.
And director Mike Newell (Four Weddings) has taken John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton and somehow turned this into a sort of Top Gun for computer geeks, as established ATC cool cat Nick Falzone (Cusack) stirs up an intense rivalry with chilled-out newcomer Russell Bell (Thornton).
Falzone is the king of the screens, a self-proclaimed expert in the art of lining up coloured blips on his radar with the utmost efficiency, and communicating info to the relevant pilots with a zippy, trademark delivery. He is The Zone.
And then Russell Bell strolls into the control room with a laid-back cowboy's drawl, a penchant for imparting the odd line of Zen philosophy and a feather in his hair. There's also a rumour spreading that he once took to a runway to see what a 747 tail-wind felt like.
Freak, as far as Falzone is concerned. But there's no disputing Russell's skill as a tin-pusher, and with the burgeoning admiration that this - and his sexy wife Mary (Angelina Jolie) - prompts in his colleagues, Nick becomes obsessed with a dangerous game of one-upmanship.
All of which results in an odd, fractured but not entirely disagreeable comedy drama that rests squarely on the shoulders of its leading men. And therein lies both the film's strengths, and its weaknesses.
Cusack's appeal - apparently innocent and charming but sufficiently off-kilter to betray a wayward darkness behind the eyes (much like Nic Cage) - makes him perfect for Falzone, who's not always a sympathetic character. It's also what has so far kept him removed from mainstream leads (again, like Cage).
And Thornton is rapidly becoming one of those acting chameleons who appears dramatically different every time you see him (think A Simple Plan, Armageddon, Sling Blade), and his laconic turn here is the ideal foil for his co-star's frenetic Falzone.
But with the thrust of the movie bolted to this personality clash and the ensuing battle of wills, scenes in which either actor is missing seem lacking in spark, strangely flat, a suspicion of time-filling, almost. Which means that those in supporting roles have something of a thankless task, though Cate Blanchett transforms well into Nick's Long Island wife Connie, and Jolie sets a new standard in voluptuousness as the seductive Mary Bell.
Flashes of real quality in place, then - an excellent head-to-head backed by some good ensemble scenes - but occasionally the wider subject matter intrudes, and you wonder quite whether this is the most suitable backdrop for what's essentially a very cinematic concept.
