Air Force One (1997)

Plot Outline: After helping the Russians to capture General Radek, the leader of a Kazakhstani terrorist group, the President of the USA, James Marshall, his family and entourage travel back to America on Air Force One. But the violent and extreme followers of the General manage to sneak their way on board and take over the plane, holding everyone aboard hostage. They think the President has escaped via a special escape pod but he has remained on board to try and recapture the plane, using the element of surprise to his advantage.

The Review: Leave your brain behind before you watch this film and it instantly becomes the "Commando of the 90s." I mean come on can you really take a film about the President of the USA kicking ass on a plane seriously? Imagine George "Dubb-Ya" Bush doing this sort of thing! Thankfully Wolfgang Petersen keeps the film flowing quickly and the action scenes integrate with one another quite easily so that you don't really have time to think too hard about what is going on when the explosions have stopped. You are never bored with this film as once you think you've recovered from a fight or explosion sequence, another one comes along. And to be fair, Petersen does about all he can to create reasonably entertaining set pieces inside a big plane. Harrison Ford once again proves that he can carry a film, despite sometimes poor and seemingly ridiculous content, and turn it into something very watchable. He is always intense in his roles and this is no exception, although sometimes when he's fighting the bad guys, the Indiana Jones theme plays in the back of my mind. He can't really make us believe that he's the President of the USA but when he's kicking ass, we don't really care. Gary Oldman is superb as the villain. He was born to play bad guys but again, he can't really rise above the material too far. The special effects throughout are good looking except for the awful plane crash at the end. However the story is weak (this would never happen in real life) and there are too many plot holes to count. The script is hard to swallow at times, especially some of Ford's speech at the beginning. But that's why you had to leave your brain at the door and sit back and enjoy. Popcorn action films don't come any better (or dumber for that matter) than this.

Final Verdict: Air Force One isn't a great action film because there's too much wrong with the plot but with the performances of Ford and Oldman it rises above the rest of the genre more than it really should.

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