Poll Position: "Air Force One" (1997)

I'm sort of late with this one but excuse my tardiness. Similarly to Jim I did have some high expectations going into watching "Air Force One" but what really hooked me was when I was 12, I actually saw a short clip of this before that really drew me in. It was just a scene with Harrison Ford cappin' some fools with his AK47 or some kind of assault rifle. Nevertheless, I always got the feeling the movie was going to be like Speed II but on a plane. And being a nineties action movie, it can't be all that bad?

The short jiff of this movie is that a bunch of terrorist from Kazajistan, who are imitating a Russian news reporters get on Air Force One with the President (Harrison Ford) and hijack the plane. Ivan (Gary Oldman) is the head terrorist who will free all the hostages on board as long as the leader of Kazajistan is released from Russian hold. If not, he'll kill one person for every half hour that passes. Can someone save the President? Or will he have to do everything by himself?

To my surprise was Gary Oldman in this movie, I didn't even recognized him 'till I saw his names in the credits at the end. Okay, I lied. the moment the movie ended, I closed my eyes and tried to forget what I just experienced. I didn't just watch a movie, I was also mentally assaulted. I couldn't narrow down what really disturbed me the most, but it was a toss up between the horrid excuse for a plot, lacking action and the tacky acting by everyone whose name wasn't Harrison Ford or Gary Oldman. Those two were awesome. Especially Oldman, he played the meanest, most menacing terrorist.

Make your choice, Mr. President!

Another main problem I had was the fact that the movie felt like one big American propaganda film. Every 5 minutes I felt that I needed to shout FUCK YER AMERICA with my cheeseburger and chilli dog fries. I'm all for pride for your nation but this was just disgusting. Really shoving that American pride in the viewers' face. An impressive tidbit is the fact that there is a countless number of fine Americans taking a bullet for the President. And let's not forget the moment when one MiG shot a missile at Air Force One in which an American F-15 dives in to block, as in blow himself up, the missile. Albeit it being a bit cheesy, I still have the urge to yell: USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA! It gets better when the President is trying to cut the right wire to dump the fuel. Out of his five choices: green, yellow, red, white and blue. The only wires that he cuts is green and yellow. Leaving the great ol' red, white and blue to be safely intact.

Say 'ello to my little friend!

While writing this review up I had an epiphany, if I looked at this movie a bit more lightly I can totally dig it. I mean I can't really take it seriously for its action. All they did was act out shooting blanks into the camera and the camera switches over to a shot of men falling down as if they got shot. And the movie was from 1997 which I can sort of excuse them for the atrocious special effects. The movie sort of works up to some sort of parody. For example, it would have been nice if they swapped Ford with Leslie Nielson. The idea of the president with a gun defeating a whole group of well armed terrorist on a plane is just a ridiculous thought. Again, AMERICA IS NUMBER 1, WHOOO! SUCK ON THAT CANADA!

At the end of the day I asked myself, did I enjoy this movie? Yes I did, but I enjoyed it liked I enjoyed a cheesy B-list movie. If I was taking this movie seriously, the only glimmer in this pile of turd is Oldman. But when I consider that this movie should have been made by Asylum Production, this is good. Most of the acting, action, graphics and especially the cheese level are at the right amount. Sadly, I don't think a lot of other people would enjoy this as much as I did.