Air Force One Down movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Air Force One Down

This action drama releases in select theaters on February 9, 2024. It goes to streaming quickly after on February 13, 2024.

RATING: R

LENGTH: 1 hour 30 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: C-

IN A NUTSHELL:

The story is about a rookie Secret Service agent who goes from serving donuts at a meeting to guarding the president on Air Force One that is being hijacked by terrorists who aren’t happy about an energy deal.

The film was directed by James Bamford. Writing credits go to Steven Paul, who also produced it.

THINGS I LIKED:

I didn’t recognize many of the cast members, except for a couple of them: Anthony Michael Hall and Dascha Polanco.
Fans of Dascha Polanco will be happy to see her. She has lost a ton of weight and looks terrific! Unfortunately, she’s not in very many scenes.
It always drives me nuts when people don’t pick up weapons on the ground when they could be helpful. In this movie, we see an agent actually take advantage of other people’s weapons and ammo often. Finally!
Keep watching during the final rolling credits to hear a good speech by the president.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

At the 5:50 mark, the dialogue must have been changed and voiced over because the lips don’t match the audio. It happens again at 8:11.
The film looks very low-budget within minutes.
I feel terrible saying this, but there were so many things I didn’t like about how Katherine McNamara played this role.
The president of the United States sits and watches while a girl fights a bad guy.
The fight sequences are pretty awful. Many of the shooting scenes look like they’re straight out of a video game. Now, that might not be a bad guy if you’re a young gamer who wants to enjoy some action while watching eye candy.
Uncle Sam…seriously? One of the character’s names is Uncle Sam. I get that it was probably an attempt to add some patriotic verbiage to the movie but it felt a bit too obvious.
I can’t tell you how many times I laughed out loud because of the ridiculous things I was seeing on the screen.
So many dumb plot holes.
There’s a silly scene where we’re supposed to be convinced that a romance is going to break out.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Kids will be bored. So will some adults.
Violence with bloody deaths
We see people get shot with blood splatters
Some profanity, including F-bombs
We see a side view of a topless woman.

THEMES:

Judging others
Politics
Service to country

INTERESTING LINES:

“I was thinking what makes the great, great is how they handle pressure.” – Allison (Katherine McNamara)
“One man’s war criminal is another man’s hero, and in my country, I’m a hero.” – Rodinov (Rade Serbedzija)
“I’m not a murderer. Don’t make me have to become one.” – Rodinov (Rade Serbedzija)
“You just gotta do what you think is right.” – President Edwards (Ian Bohen)
“You’ve lost everything. You just don’t know it yet.” – President Edwards (Ian Bohen)