Air Force One - The greatest (fictional) President of all time

Harrison Ford plays... well, basically Harrison Ford, only he’s President of America.  And that’s pretty believable.  He’s at his most charming all the way through the film – basically Han Solo crossed with Indiana Jones.  It doesn’t take much imagination to see how easily he was ‘elected’ into the White House.  But of course the cons of being the most powerful man in the world means that people like Gary Oldman will try and slip on board your plane, take your family hostage and threaten to murder them unless he gets what he wants.  In this case... some rogue dictator general needs freeing from prison, but that’s by the by.  All that matters is that President Ford (no, that’s not his name, but I can’t remember what it was) is on the loose aboard the presidential plane, Air Force One, and not too happy about the unwanted guests.

When I first went to see Air Force One in the cinema, the film ‘Die Hard’ was at the back of my mind.  In Die Hard, Bruce Willis had an entire skyscraper to hide in while he picked off the terrorists one by one.  I did wonder whether a film about a man trying to hide in a plane (even Air Force One) would actually be believable.  I was wrong.  Don’t think that just because the action centres on one (slightly smaller) location that it isn’t brilliantly tense.

It’s an action film, so if you’re into your tense stand-offs and shooting bad-guys, you should love this.  There are plenty of decent enough characters, but it’s Harrison Ford who carries the film on his own.  Like I say, he’s at his most charming and you can’t help but root for him.  And it’s worth mentioning Gary Oldman, who, whereas Ford is at his most charming, Oldman revels in his evil-doings.  There’s no mistaking ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in this film.

It’s nearly two hours long, but it doesn’t seem that way.  Just like its simple setting, it has an equally simple plot and you don’t really need to use too much brainpower to understand anything.  But then that’s its major selling point – it doesn’t try to be anything other than a rocking action film.  And, based on that, it succeeds.

And, when Barrack Obama steps down, I really think Harrison Ford should take up the mantle.

9/10 almost as perfect as The Godfather