Air Force One [DVD] [1997] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Air Force One is a run-of-the-mill action movie starring Harrison Ford as the President of the United States cheerfully making his way home from a rousing anti-terrorist speech in Mother Russia, only to find that terrorists disguised as a Russian news crew have somehow taken over the most secure aircraft on earth. Naturally, the President takes it upon himself to rebel and become the hero of the hour.

Originally released in 1997, this movie feels like it should have been released in the 80s. Its plot circles around terrorists hijacking Air Force One in return for the release of evil dictator in Kazakhstan - probably more in reference to the Bosnian & Kosovo Conflicts of the time - but truthfully, it's not difficult to see what's going on here; this is really just a throwback to the Cold War and it's the good old US of A vs. those evil Russian communists. Indeed this movie must have brought a tear to the eye of Reagan and Gorbachev, who worked so hard to end decades of the Cold War years earlier, only for those pesky Hollywood writers to keep dragging it back up for our entertainment in the Western World. (Jesus they'd even managed to ween James Bond off the Russians at that stage!)

Anyhoo, this is essentially Die Hard on Air Force One which in itself is a fun but ridiculous premise with a screenplay littered with unintentional comedic values. Ford ably plays a former veteran turned President, who spends a lot of the movie armed & dangerous, running around the bowels of the plane, picking off terrorists & rescuing passengers (somehow it's hard to picture the likes of George W Bush doing that), Gary Oldman plays the terrorist kingpin with supreme aplomb (as he does in any bad guy role he plays) but Glenn Close is a letdown as the Vice President, completely overacting in the role - 'He's not asking. Your Commander-in-Chief has issued a direct order. DO IT!!!!' (cue 'DUN DUN DUN' music) and another unintended laugh from us.

Try as it might, the script just doesn't maintain the suspense; visually, it's not helped by horrendously substandard CGI - (there have been explosions, & crashes from movies in the 70s that look more realistic than what you'll see here) and all to the background sound of a cheesy oversold musical score. Unfortunately, it's a movie that just doesn't stand the passage of time, pre-9/11 it's hard to take this seriously, post 9/11 it's impossible.

Rather than spending hard earned money on this, you're better off waiting for it to appear on some digital TV channel some night when you come home, tired & pissed off after a bad day at work, its only effect being to brainlessly entertain you before you hit the hay for the night, barely remembering you bothered to watch it the next day.

This film may suffer from a slightly unbelievable story line but when you have Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman and Glenn Close delivering performances as strong as these, you're going to get your moneys worth.

The picture quality is very good with a nice anamorphic transfer and very few marks on the print.

The sound is Dolby 5.1 as are most DVD's released these days, but with this film containing great action scenes and explosions, the sound quality really stands out.

The extras include a 6-minute featurette, which is more of an extended trailer, a fantastic Director's Commentary which is different to other Commentaries because the director is being asked questions by an interviewer while they watch it. You get the trailer for this film as well as 'Pearl Harbour' and last of all you get a bizarre subtitles extra, this is basically watching the film with subtitles but instead of them being normal subtitles, they are actually bits of information regarding the movie, this is a weird but wonderful extra, and is well worth watching as there's loads of interesting stuff.

I have to say that this film was very entertaining, but I'm pretty sure not in the way the filmmakers intended.

Gary Oldman is to be commended for his grasp of the Russian dialogue he had to perform, he really wasn't half bad, and I was impressed. I rarely hear actors who actually sound like they have some idea of what they're saying, and it's a refreshing change.

Besides that, the whole thing was pretty laughable. I actually burst out laughing when they deployed the Presidential escape capsule (yes, really) and the jingoistic Americans rock, everyone else sucks tone throughout is so extreme it is also pretty funny.

Several pivotal moments happen on open hatches for no actual reason beyond the desire to up the jeopardy. Several scenes end up being pretty silly due to attempts to up the ante. The President actually ends up hanging on by his fingertips from an open cargo hatch at one point, as Secret Service dudes fly past him to their deaths.

There are some utterly transparent attempts to make sure you KNOW the Kazakh guys are Evil Men, such as a rather manipulative scene in which the captives all say how nice a woman is before she gets shot in the head in front of the First Lady and First Daughter, just in case you'd failed to notice that the Terrorists Are Evil Communists With No Conscience. Whereas on the other side, the pilots (some of the few actually admirable characters in the film, refusing to capitulate at the cost of their lives) die with no fanfare or regret, and the poor beggars who refuel the plane get their aircraft blown up messily and plummet to their deaths in a ball of fire and no one seems to give a crap.

The only villainous American is left literally standing at the door of the aeroplane roaring his displeasure just before it crashes into the sea and disintegrates.

What's sad to me is that there is a potentially interesting story here - what will a President do, after stating outright that there will be no negotiations with terrorists, when it's his family in the line of fire? It would have been more interesting if he WASN'T on board, and actually had to think about negotiating, rather than doing the whole unlikely action hero bit.

But the totally ridiculous aspects, including the fact that said President essentially saves the day nigh on single handed, pretty much turn this into a film of the brainless summer blockbuster variety, and not even a particularly good example of that. The entertainment value came almost entirely from disbelieving laughter at the more bizarre and far fetched moments, and a kind of horrified fascination with how unbelievably silly the entire premise and plot are. If you want to turn your brain off for a couple of hours, there are worse ways to spend your time, but I can't imagine actually having paid six quid for this or having any desire to watch it again. One to borrow, not buy.