Pushing Tin Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)October 22nd, 1999
PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com
A group of men emerge from a giant warehouse, their eyes obscured by dark sunglasses. No, it’s not one of those Ray Ban commercials with the vampires – it’s Pushing Tin, a film about a group of over-stressed, bleary-eyed New York air traffic controllers, working the most crowded air space in the world. The name comes from the vocational slang for when a controller is landing planes at a higher-than-average rate, or “pushing tin.”
John Cusack (Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil) stars as Nick “the Zone” Falzone, the fast-talking, efficient leader of the group who finds his life thrown into upheaval when his bosses hire another alpha-male, Russell Bell (Billy Bob Thornton, A Simple Plan), to work alongside him. Bell’s tag as “an interesting guy” and Zen attitude toward his job and personal life brings out all of Falzone’s insecurities. Plus, Bell has a really hot wife (Angelina Jolie, Gia). Before you know it, Falzone is reduced to a simpering idiot.
You would expect more from a film with this pedigree. Director Mike Newell (Donnie Brasco) has a more-than-decent track record, and the acting talent is first-class (three Oscar nominations and two Golden Globe wins in the last three years). The big problem is with the predictable script, which was adapted from Darcy Frey’s magazine article titled “Something’s Got to Give” and is the first film adapted for the screen by Cheers creators Glen and Les Charles. Tin also features a bizarre subplot focusing on Falzone’s lone female coworker (Vicki Lewis, NewsRadio) and her aspiring bodybuilding career.
2:03– R for nudity, adult language and some mild violence
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