Air Force One (1997) Review

Air Force One seems to screw every little thing up and becomes leaps and bounds from any other great hijacking movie. Well, it seems so at times. Once Air Force One has your attention, and you're loving the ride it switches to more boring, less fun movie moments, and then your opinion of the film goes down. But, just when you're ready to give up on it, it shows you something great and you like the film again. At least that's what happened for me. For once in my life, I was not satisfied by the casting of Harrison Ford as the action lead. He was too weak, soft, and his performance wasn't very strong either. I feel like Jason Statham or Denzel Washington could have done better in the role. On the antagonist side, it's the only thing the movie gets right. Gary Oldman delivers one of his greatest performances ever, and his villain is terrifyingly great. You could not have asked for a greater action villain. The rest of the cast is well, mediocre. There are too many helpless female characters, which doesn't go well in an action movie, and while I liked the appearance of William H. Macy, it feels like every character but Gary Oldman's needs great improvement. The plot is decent, it's thrilling and fun, but it could have used some more action and a longer story with higher stakes. Also, the theme is too lame and heroic, and the effects are awful. Wolfgang Peterson really doesn't get anything right as a movie director, but he was far from completely striking out with Air Force One. It certainly wasn't a masterpiece, but I enjoyed it.
Movie Rating: B