3 out of 5

Director: Wolfgang Petersen

Completely competent if overly patriotic, Air Force One is a typical pre “CGI is easy” action movie with typically easy heroic themes from director Wolfgang Petersen. Is it exciting? Definitely. And it provides a worthwhile villain in Gary Oldman. The 125 minutes runtime is a little unnecessary for distraction-action fare, but it passes by quickly enough in true big-budget “what other last minute things can go wrong?” fashion. Quick plotty: president ignores the advice of his advice-giving people and gives a speech promising to act more directly and swiftly when American’s foreign friends are threatened. He gets aboard Air Force One with family and lo the plane gets hijacked by Russian extremists who want their crazy dictator released from jail… Ford is prez, Oldman is Russian. Oldman does his restrained intelligent/crazy bit, although even with the believable Russian dialogue the accent seems to slip here and there, and all the primaries deliver good, solid performances. At the end of the day, though, there’s not much too this – extras get tossed mindlessly around, some “twists” happen, people act real American when told what to do by German directors (ID4 was lingering nearby when this came out…) – but nothing much beyond the norm. A good dad flick.