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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Air Force One
Columbia Pictures
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FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for violence
Starring
Harrison Ford,
Gary Oldman,
Glenn Close,
Wendy Crewson,
Liesel Matthews,
Dean Stockwell,
Xander Berkeley,
and
William H. Macy
Wolfgang Petersen's gripping thriller about an uncompromising U.S. President (Ford) who has just told the world he will not negotiate with terrorists. When Russian neo-nationalists hijack Air Force One, the world's most secure and extraordinary aircraft, the President is faced with a nearly impossible decision to give in to terrorist demands or sacrifice not only the country's dignity, but the lives of his wife and daughter. (Sony)
| GENRE(S): |
Action
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Drama
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Suspense/Thriller
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| WRITTEN BY: |
Andrew W. Marlowe
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| DIRECTED BY: |
Wolfgang Petersen
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| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: February 10, 1998
Video: February 10, 1998
Theatrical: July 25, 1997
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| RUNNING TIME: |
124 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
English, Russian (with English subtitles) |
The film was nominated for two Academy Awards in the categories of Best Sound and Best Film Editing.
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
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]
100
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]
100
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Dares to present a flat-out heroic president, without the safety net of irony. It succeeds.
90
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.
88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Director Wolfgang Petersen puts such a fresh spin on the familiar that it all works like gangbusters.
80
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.
80
The New York Times
Elvis Mitchell
A meat-and-potatoes American thriller that means business all around the world.
80
Empire
Ian Freer
Fulfils all its early promise, delivering a well oiled, no-nonsense, supremely entertaining crowd pleaser.
80
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
Takes its absurd premise and keeps itself narrowly focused, pushing its heroic cast through obstacle after obstacle.
75
USA Today
Mike Clark
Viscerally juicy....The movie is effectively cast. [25 July 1997, p.D2]
75
San Francisco Examiner
Barbara Shulgasser
Think of this as "Die Hard" in a suit, with an election coming up.
70
Time
Richard Schickel
Good--sometimes witty—suspense. [28 Jul 1997, p. 69]
67
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.
63
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
A fairly competent recycling of familiar ingredients, given an additional interest because of Harrison Ford's personal appeal.
63
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.
60
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
A pretty good thriller for the first forty minutes or so. [25 Aug 1997, p. 24]
60
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.
50
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.
50
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.
50
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.
40
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.
30
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.
20
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.
10
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.
0
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.
 The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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