Pushing tin is a confusing piece of work. I was under the impression it would be a story about air traffic controllers, but it is not. This is in fact a pure love/romance drama, and the traffic controller setting could really be swapped with anything else - it plays a very minor role and does not contribute anything interesting to the story at all. I believe the story writer wanted to make it attractive to a broader audience (not only girls) and decided to throw aviation into the mix to lure their boyfriends into the cinemas. A clever trick maybe, but an ugly one. Actors are OK though, Thornton in particular, so if you are a fan of love/romance dramas, maybe give it a try. Otherwise Ground Control, which is a REAL movie about air controllers, will be a much better choice.

John Cusack stars as Nick 'the zone' Falzone, an air traffic controller who orchestrates thousands of safe plane landings every year . The flame of his marriage dimmed out a little throughout the years but basically he's got all his ducks in a row, having mastered his job and being the undisputed king of his workplace. A series of opening-scenes document Nick as a popular jester and a charming womanizer. Confidence, popularity and fulfillment are the keywords. He's always been the pilot of his life, skilfully steering it away from near-crashes or even turbulence, however it goes into a tailspin when new colleague Russell Bell (Billy Bob Thornton) joins his work group. Their rivalry drives both men to the edge of lunacy, they strain every nerve to annoy each other and what starts out as innocent taunting turns into mean-spirited attacks. When Nick sleeps with Russell's wife(a seductive turn by Angelina Jolie) both marriages threaten to fall apart and Nick's fear of reprisal combined with the high stress factor of his profession - uneasy lies the head that wears the crown - start to prevent him from competently executing his job and lives hang in the balance...The setting's well-chosen for the mind games, it's conceivable that battles for the alpha-male position take place in stressful, highly competitive work environments, in this case air traffic control, where the air is loaded with more testosterone and adrenaline than among firemen or wall street traders. Anti-stress devices and methods grace the screen abundantly, from biceps-training hand pumps and stress relieving squeeze balls to zany ailments such as letting a landing plane overhead; the turbulence causing one to spin right off the ground into a sort of whirl motion (making for one of the movie's best scenes). A couple of problems stare you right in the face, first of all the rivalry between Cusack and Thornton never takes a sufficiently interesting form. Sure, the relationship isn't completely frictionless but it's hard to believe Cusack ever threatened Thornton's masculinity, whereas it more or less works the other way around. Cusack being his usual smooth-talking charmer seems harmless, and when Tornton admits near the end of the movie he loathed Cusack's character to such degree he scared himself, literally wanting to kill his rival, I didn't believe him for one second.With 2 hours runtime, the film still appears too short to be able to work out all plot lines, the marriage issues subplot never reaches takeoff speed which causes the ending to fall totally flat. If one can turn a blind eye to the less than satisfying resolution, you'll find plenty of subtle comedy treats along the way. 'Pushing Tin' isn't the kind of comedy one can enjoy watching with one eye on the screen whilst doing something else. The fun usually lies in half-sentence jokes, looks between characters and charming one-liners you need to prick up your ears for to catch all subtleties. The sharp dialog ("If you ever want to sleep at night, don't marry a beautiful girl. ") and the cast's performance gives this lukewarm rom-com an edge over it's peers.

Air traffic control isn't so much the subject matter of this film as a metaphor for the life of its main protagonist (ably portrayed by John Cusack) which slowly begins to crumble when a new controller (Billy Bob Thornton) threatens his status as kingpin of the control centre. As such, the film might not quite be what you'd expect, and can't seem to decide whether it's a comedy or a drama while strangely never seeming to be a combination of the two.Air traffic control is apparently one of the most stressful jobs around and, as such, you'd think there'd be a rich seam worth mining, but I can't recall many – if any – other films that use it as the core of their story. I suppose the makers should be given credit for delivering a different setting for their tale, but they really should have worked harder on the character development than they do here. Cusack's character arc is so predictable it's practically a straight line from point A to point B while Thornton isn't really given any character beyond mysterious stranger – with an occasional touch of the mystical thrown in – of few words. This predictability – and the impossibility of getting under the skin of any other character than Cusack's (whose methods of expressing his insecurities, it has to be said, make him difficult to like) – make the film something of a long haul.

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.