Air Force One (Wolfgang Petersen, 1997): Okay, as long as we're talking about airplanes, let's take this moment to talk about another terrific airborne suspenser from the past few years, Air Force One.

In Air Force One, Harrison Ford plays a President who's honest, heroic, and dearly loves his wife and daughter . . . yeah, you know who I'm talking about. All he'd have to do is engineer a monster economic boom and he's a dead ringer for our own beloved Fearless Leader, William Jefferson Clinton. (Mail calling me an idiot can be posted here.)

President James Marshall is tough. And he's just delivered a speech declaring a new zero tolerance policy towards terrorism for the U.S. Unfortunately, some evil terrorist dudes led by Gary Oldman want to get their captured leader (a wee cameo by Jurgen Prochnow) back. And to accomplish their goals, they're going to sneak aboard the President's airplane, take him hostage, and force the U.S. to negotiate.

But when the attack happens, the President's escape pod gets away, with the President, unbeknownst to the terrorists, not on it. Now President Marshall is hidden in the bowels of the plane a la Die Hard, sneaking around taking out terrorists and whatnot. Meanwhile, on the ground, Vice President Kathryn Bennett (Glenn Close) has to figure out whether to negotiate with the baddies, whether to declare the President incapacitated and take over his duties, and all sorts of other tough decisions which she handles with great aplomb considering the small matter of, you know, her gender.

Last week I gushed about how suspenseful Executive Decision is, but Air Force One might be even more so, if only because it's a darker, more serious film, and the threat of bodily harm seems so much more immediate. It is not, like Executive Decision, one of those zero-civilian body count action pictures. On the other hand, it doesn't have the wit of Executive Decision (strange, because scenarist Andrew Marlowe's most recent script--for End of Days--was such a howler).

Helmer Wolfgang Petersen is a veteran at directing in confined spaces: the submarine in Das Boot, the desolate barren planet in Enemy Mine, and Rene Russo's acting range in In the Line of Fire. On Air Force One, the action is tight, and quick, and nasty. The pic's been criticized for being too rah-rah U.S.A. rulez and don't we have a bitchin' Presidency, but what the fuck? In this age of cynicism, why can't we enjoy a fantasy about a President who can pick up a gun and defend his family and his way of life against a bunch of commie murderers with Russian accents?

So for all Americans, or just those who hate foreigners, or those who believe that Clinton, in the same situation, would also grab a 9MM and kick some commie ass, Air Force One is a must-see.