Review of Air Force One (1997) by Steve B — 30 Aug 2010

Spoilers Galore! How could any reviewer here say this is "a believable plot"? I don't watch a lot action movies - my dad turned this on during a visit - but it was the silliest thing I'd ever seen in my life.

"Die Hard" on a plane with the President as action hero was far fetched enough, but they turned him into a frickin' Macgyver/Rambo/Batman. He's hanging off the side of a airbourne jumbo jet, throwing karate chops, mowing down bad guys with his AK-47, saving the First Lady and his daughter then jumping into the pilot's seat and evading a couple of guided missiles before rappelling onto another moving aircraft right before it crashes.

On the side he commands the Joint Chiefs by phone, and pulls off a little diplomatic negotiating to boot. Wow! Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. If this movie is "believable", and "makes you think", and the President had done all the things he did here, we would have cleared Mt.

Rushmore and just put one big giant Harrison Ford head on it. We'd forget Lincoln's name. All our money would have Harrison Ford on it right down to the nickels, front and back, and the governments of the world would have renounced their leaders and made him King of the Earthlings.

(Good Lord, they didn't make a sequel to this, did they? Air Force Two?) I understand it's a popcorn picture and I don't mean to take it too seriously, but this movie doesn't give off the vibe of being intentionally campy and Ford's brow sure is taking it seriously.

If he squeezed his brow any harder his eyeballs would've popped out like golf balls. To call this movie cartoonish is an insult to cartoons. Like I said, I don't watch many action flicks, and I'm remembering why, but is this typical of the late 90's Harrison Ford pictures? Were ALL the action movies like this? If so, it's no wonder we thought invading Iraq would be easy.

We assumed it would only take one very determined guy. One star.