Air Force One

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Harrison Ford as the President of the United States is such a perfect piece of casting that it's at once a fantasy and a joke: The joke is how perfect the fantasy is. [25 Jul 1997, p. 48]

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

At once vigorous and old-fashioned, a piece of expertly crafted entertainment that gets the job done with skill and panache. [25 July 1997]

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Dares to present a flat-out heroic president, without the safety net of irony. It succeeds.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Ford makes such a dynamic president in Air Force One, you may find yourself favorably weighing his odds in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Director Wolfgang Petersen puts such a fresh spin on the familiar that it all works like gangbusters.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Viewers looking for old-fashioned movie thrills as a change of pace from the glut of alien and digital-oriented features might paradoxically enjoy the feeling of being back on terra firma with this airborne adventure.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

A meat-and-potatoes American thriller that means business all around the world.

Empire Ian Freer

Fulfils all its early promise, delivering a well oiled, no-nonsense, supremely entertaining crowd pleaser.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Takes its absurd premise and keeps itself narrowly focused, pushing its heroic cast through obstacle after obstacle.

USA Today Mike Clark

Viscerally juicy....The movie is effectively cast. [25 July 1997, p.D2]

San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser

Think of this as "Die Hard" in a suit, with an election coming up.

Time Richard Schickel

Good--sometimes witty—suspense. [28 Jul 1997, p. 69]

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Peterson's film is a huge, loud beast of a film, filled with gunfire, explosions, and not a few tears. It's all grounded, however, in Ford's gritted-teeth performance as President Marshall.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A fairly competent recycling of familiar ingredients, given an additional interest because of Harrison Ford's personal appeal.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Petersen ratchets the tension up to a level where the viewer is likely to forget the imbecilic plot contrivances that have gotten the situation to this point, and just enjoy the action and adventure.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

A pretty good thriller for the first forty minutes or so. [25 Aug 1997, p. 24]

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

The first 20 minutes of Wolfgang Petersen’s new action adventure, Air Force One, are so thrillingly choreographed (and so very, very loud), it’s all the more disappointing that the balance of the movie tends to move less like a Stealth bomber and more like a jalopy — jerking fitfully from plot hole to plot hole, only occasionally finding momentum.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Christopher Harris

The film's biggest flaw -- aside from the lapses of credibility, which are almost obligatory in escapist summer movies -- is that it flies on and on until its power to hold us simply peters out.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Trapped uncomfortably between its higher aspirations and the demands of genre, this picture never quite gets its bearings, but it's still a solid ride.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The movie wastes a good opportunity to look at important questions, such as who's responsible for American policy when the president is busy killing terrorists.

Newsweek Howard Fineman

An over-the-top thriller, too loosely tethered to reality to be a lesson about anything other than the limits of popcorn consumption.

The New Yorker Terrence Rafferty

The picture's attempt to satisfy the aggressive fantasies of a graying white-male audience is weirdly fascinating. It's something you don't see every day: a geriatric comic book.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Wolfgang Petersen and writer Andrew Marlowe, apparently afraid to really make fun of any American icons, challenge us to take the story straight no matter what, but the only thing this ponderous movie has going for it is its unintentional humor.

Slate Sarah Kerr

There's not a single thing about Air Force One to recommend, except perhaps the controlled performance of Glenn Close, who does remarkably well as the recipient of several phone calls from the sky.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

If you've ever sat in a jet waiting on the runway, feeling it lumbering along in place and then bucking and shaking when it's cleared for take-off, you know what it's like to sit through Air Force One.