Post by ronnierocketago on Jul 14, 2009 4:04:07 GMT
"Get off my plane!"[/i][/size]
AIR FORCE ONE (1997) - **1/2
If you've ever heard of Robert McKee, he's one of those script gurus who writes books and gives lectures telling you how to write and sell a screenplay. You know, those supposed masters and their fucking "rules" (i.e. cliches) which earnest people follow like the Ten Commandments, and partly amount for why most Hollywood films are generic and pussy-vanilla wafer. Thanks Bob. Intentionally or with a grinning jab, the brilliant ADAPTATION openly ridiculed McKee's dogma. That one was written by Charlie Kaufman, a master who proves (or doesn't?) that there is only one rule in scripting: There are no rules. No seminar or paperback will ever compensate for talent and vision. I should know, I've tried to defy. Tried.
So what does this irrelevant rant have to do with a lame actioneer? Nothing, except this one YouTube clip of him I saw where he beefs up his worthy credentials by pimping how one of his students scripted AIR FORCE ONE. I had a good laugh when he said this in public with a straight face. Thanks Bob.
AIR FORCE ONE took off at the tail end of the DIE HARD epoch in American action cinema, you know where terrorists hijack, take hostages, and one lone free guy saves the day. Well what was masterful, fresh, and most of all thrilling in 1988 was by a decade later creatively sterile and tediously dull. Sure a few pictures followed the broad recipe but executed with some surprising touches and terrific twists like the Steven Seagal vehicle UNDER SIEGE, but otherwise Hollywood had the formula locked down to a professional cold boring science. They've done the same with the current BOURNE lifecycle.
AIR also proves my notion that EXECUTIVE DECISION and PASSENGER 57 (which I reviewed) earlier exhibited, which is that the DIE HARD template just does not work at all on an airplane. Regardless of the cast and budget quality, I just can't accept the notion that a hide and seek guerilla war could be conducted in such a cramp and limiting-spaced location without a rather quick resolution. Action cinema depends on a "stupid quota", where the viewer forgives little logic gaps because quite frankly, most if not all such movies just can't operate without them.
Violate the quota, and the audience will tell you to go fuck off a cliff. Unless of course you're a fan of Michael Bay. who to such people can do no wrong. He's the Sarah Palin of action cinema. The point is, those pictures passed the quota with the mere premise. Shit even PASSENGER 57, not exactly an innovative sparkling, realized this which was why they had that whole 2nd act where the plane lands and the subsequent car chase at the carnival. It didn't really work, but give 57 different flavors credit for trying.
AIR FORCE ONE's gimmick is that when the American President's (awesome) jet plane gets taken over by Russian villains led by Gary Oldman, and the hero with the bravado and wits this time is....the American President. Not some Commando or Secret Service agent, but that flabby middle age or senile asshole politician who every four years openly utters any lie that millions want to hear so he could win the Oval Office.
I guess it's an interesting if admittedly silly pulpy concept, one with potential fun I suppose, except AIR kinda shoots itself in the foot. First, there is the obligatory moment in such DIE HARD-type movies (except funny enough, DIE HARD) where someone briefs another on the hero's asskicking credentials, in this case the President was a former Vietnam War soldier. Wouldn't it be more fascinating if a career hawk politician, the sorts who mock the military careers of other candidates while dodging armed service (like Dick Cheney), suddently was forced to back up their smack?
Then there is the fact that Harrison Ford is the President. I mean of course he would kick Commie ass and chew bubble gum for the US of A. Apparently Ford turned down AIR several times (gee why?) until Sony wrote him a ridiculously rich paycheck. So yes this is why Indiana Jones eventually did a DIE HARD clone. And some of you thought he degraded himself with INDY IV. Alright he did, but honestly he got off easy for AIR FORCE ONE. Where were you K-19 critics?
Now excuse me, but I apologize if this review isn't necessarily a review of the movie by beat, but more a generalized meandering musing. Trust me, if you've seen any of these DIE HARD knock-offs, why should I drabble on the obvious?
With the plot device, what (literal) fighting President did these writers had in mind when they cooked this up? Come on, who was the last Commander-In-Chief that you could imagine doing all this John McClane shit? Certainly not Clinton when AIR FORCE ONE was produced, or his successors. Dubya was a Texas Air National Guardsman, and Obama is cool and all, but come on. Bush Sr. was a WW2 pilot, Reagan was a lifeguard, Carter in the Navy, etc. Shit even Supreme Commander Eisenhower himself never faced a single day in combat, and JFK commanded a friggin boat.
I guess we would have to go all the way back to Andrew Jackson or Teddy Roosevelt to see such a macho hands-on Presidents. TR the guy who charged up San Juan Hill, and Jackson who with his walking cane promptly beat the hell out of his foiled assassin. Maybe John Kerry too if he had gotten elected, but the guy would have been in his 60s so that might have been a tad goofy. Off-tangent, but Clinton saw AIR FORCE ONE twice at the White House and liked it, but honestly the dude has no taste. Just look at his women like Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky. I wouldn't trust his reel recommendations.
With AIR, there is even a scene where the President and his Advisors talk of "Saddam" hiding his secret weapons again. Now that seems laughable, but man at that time, most people (of both parties) thought Hussein possessed those evil WMDs. Including me. Not because they had proof or anything, but because we assumed he did. It's like Cobra Command or S.P.E.C.T.R.E., you figure those jerks are always planning a new world dominating scheme, even on vacation. So it's a bummer when we found out 3,000 graves later that Saddam bluffed everyone that he such an arsenal so to deter an invasion.
Another dated dimension to AIR FORCE ONE is the mere idea that because the American President is friendly with the Russian President, that Oldman could hold Ford and the First Family at gunpoint....wait wait, what if the Family wasn't involved? Wouldn't the President be more of a hero to take the plane back because it's the right thing to do and not his mere responsibility? Oh wait, that McKee-trained hack writer probably thought there would be no movie if the President had no reason to stay onboard.
Where was I? Oh, the mere idea that Oldman could force Ford to ask the Russian leaders to release from jail some generic hardline Russian general, played by the German Jurgen Prochnow. You know I'm always happy when Prochnow gets Hollywood jobs, and it's kinda fitting that "Germany's Harrison Ford" got casted in AIR FORCE ONE, even if it's a cameo. Also, it's the belated uncelebrated reteaming of Prochnow and his DAS BOOT director Wolfgang Petersen.
Speaking of which, what the fuck happened to Petersen? He once shot some great stuff, like DAS BOOT and that Clint Eastwood thriller IN THE LINE OF FIRE and even as a kid, I sorta liked THE NEVERENDING STORY. Never saw SHATTERED, but the annoyingly charming ArkadyRenko likes it, so that must mean something. But OUTBREAK, POSEIDON, TROY, THE PERFECT STORM...all expensive, all major studio releases, all worthless. His name pops up in a trailer, I don't even bother anymore, almost the German auteur version of Nic Cage.
Alright alright, so AIR FORCE ONE was released back when Clinton and Yeltsin were "friends" (more like corrupt executives who needed each other to get re-elected) and I just don't buy that the Russian President would release Prochnow. Especially now with Putin's Russia and it's one-party Democracy, Putin would laugh Ford off the phone. So sorry Oldman, but your plan is like the Vatican: holey.
I'm being a tad rough with AIR FORCE ONE here, which despite all of my nitpicking, is still competent watchable. I liked that joke where President Ford (I would vote for him) calls the White House operator, and is dismissed as a bad impersonator. Too bad that faux-prank call gag was recycled from THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT two years earlier. Despite not having much to work here, have you ever seen Oldman or William Macy ever give a bad performance, even in a bad film like LOST IN SPACE or WILD HOGS? Of course not, those pro-thespians are always dependable. Hell I was even charmed by that cheesy one-liner that everyone seems to remember, even if it's a misnomer statement: The plane is actually owned by the American taxpayers, not you President. Obama flying to the recent G8 summit and Ghana wasn't cheap.
I might have given AIR a barely passing grade, even with anti-climatic battle between AFO and enemy MiGs and lackluster finale with the traitor agent, if not for the ultimate dealbreaker of obnoxious intelligence-insulting garbage. Apparently the filmmakers thought a plot about Air Force One and the First Family stormed by terrorists and the President fending them off wasn't dramatic enough, so we had to have this nonsensical subplot where the Vice-President (Glenn Close) and Secretary of Defense (Dean Stockwell) have a bitter pissifght over who's actually Acting President with Ford...err, busy. Look just because Alexander Haig tried this, doesn't mean you should be encouraged Hollywood. The Constitution clearly states that if the President is incapacitated by illness or punching Oldman off an airplane ramp, the Vice-President assumes temporary powers and duties until said President can personally resume the Office.
But no offense but wow I thought Vice-President Close acted very irresponsible here. If these violent terrorists capture the President, then they would possibly get access to the nuclear "football" launch codes and well, anything they wanted, randomly bombing someone or pardons. Oldman and his team should have considered having Ford sign some pardons just in case, since they can't be rescinded once granted. You can never be too safe. As a political science major graduate, Close should have done the responsible thing by invoking the 25th Amendment, and render Ford utterly useless to these thugs.
You know, some of you will be pissed when I say this, but Cheney would have done that. Biden too. If anything, I might even want to argue that Close unintentionally gives a thematic argument against executive women. I bet Hillary hated this picture. Plus she is a great actress and given some wonderful performances, but she has one moment in AIR where she learns of AFO's hostile take-over, and the daffy way she dramatically turns her head....it's the worst acting moment of her entire career. And not acting Presidential either, though how many of our recent Presidents actually have?
P.S. - Many years back apparently a direct-to-video sequel to AIR FORCE ONE was in pre-production with Michael Keaton (!) taking over the Ford role and this time the White House is the target, but that got scrapped. But if it had gone forward, I wonder how his partisan opponents would try to criticize him through twitter or cable after saving hostages and killing terrorists twice within his Presidency. I suggest talking points like "He could have saved more" or "Why does this keep happening to him?" Also visualize Keaton on the WH roof with bazooka, yelling at the bad guys: "Get out of my house!"[/i]
I have rented that movie.