Air Force One – Blu-ray Disc Review
June 6, 2009 – 9:41 PM - Posted by: Brendan SurplessTags: BD-Live, Dean Stockwell, Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, Harrison Ford, Liesel Matthews, Paul Guilfoyle, Sony, Wendy Crewson, William H. Macy, Wolfgang Petersen
has an average rating of 6.3 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
Dolby TrueHD 5.1
include just a commentary/movie cash
– 
– 1997
– 124 Minutes
– Sony
– 
This uses 31.7GB for the movie out of 35.3GB total.
Overall Verdict – Great But Lacks Bonus
Buy it for $19.99 @ Amazon.com
— Review by: Brendan Surpless —
The Film is directed by Wolfgang Petersen (known for “Das Boot“). President James Marshall (Harrison Ford) has just given a landmark speech in Russia denouncing terrorism and announcing a new offensive path for America’s defense of terrorism. On his way back home on Air Force One, the plane is hijacked by a man named Ivan Korshunov (Gary Oldman) and a group of his followers. Their demand? The immediate release of terrorist General Ivan Radek (Jurgen Prochnow), a man known for his heinous genocide throughout the world. Clearly not wanting to give into his demands, this ex-soldier is soon put at the end of his limits when he learns that his wife and daughter are among the hostages. Now it’s up for Marshall to use his former training in hopes of saving his family by taking back the plane. What results is an all around solid action affair that is only somewhat hindered by one huge loophole.
As I had just mentioned the issue I had with this film, an interesting end they never addressed, is why SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!! Secret Service Agent Gibbs betrays everyone and decides to help out Ivan. As another member of the President’s cabinet asks at the end, “it was you?”. A simple “Da Money” would have sufficed no? Instead this is never, ever even slightly addressed at all. I’m sure some might wonder why I care about this aspect as the film still works in keeping the viewers attention throughout. Well why should a film never even bring up why the main plot is put into place?
Anyhow with that said, I’ll be the first in saying that “Air Force One” is still damn entertaining. Of most interest is the awesome takeover of the plane, which keeps the viewers on their toes for nearly 10 minutes. That and the back and forth jabs that Ford and Oldman give themselves in the acting department. Even though I’d probably have to give the overall actor award to Oldman as he plays a despicable villain who you can’t help but be utterly convinced and drawn into, Ford still does a commendable job. In his (stealing a gag from “Family Guy“) “Give Me Back My Family” role, Ford plays a believable character here. Perhaps it’s how Ford carries himself in his roles or perhaps its how he brings the audience into his roles. Whatever it may be, Ford has that draw that brings us in never letting go.
Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layer Blu-ray Disc). The film tends to use a color palette that consists of mostly of blues, which by the way look detailed and quite bold at times. Speaking of detail there is a good amount of detail present, most notable in the film’s numerous close ups. There are instances where detail is somewhat lost, mostly in the wider shots inside the plane, but still there is a good amount for a somewhat older film. The film’s print is in fine condition with no instance of noise or print damage. There is a heavy layer of film grain present that some may roll their eyes at;however, we do need to take into consideration that this is how Petersen shoots a majority of his films where the settings are darker. No this isn’t a super demo disc but I was still fairly impressed with what Sony has put together. This earns itself a “4 Star Rating“.
Audio Quality on this release is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround. A really great aspect here is that of the film’s score by the late Jerry Goldsmith. Originally written by Randy Newman but eventually being rejected, Petersen turned to Goldsmith who put together a fantastic score. Even though some might criticize the score for having that overly pumped up heroic feel to it, I personally felt it suited the film just fine. Particularly the main theme sounded excellent. Moving on the film’s dynamics are also quite impressive with numerous instances of a solid atmosphere that puts you right in the midst of the action. Take a look at the sequence where the plane is taken over. This scene of roughly 5 minutes has always been a favorite of mine and my brothers, of which one of them noticed the gun fire sounded more realistic and dynamic. While all this is occurring, the LFE is deep and immersive adding to the overall impact of the TrueHD track. There is also a fine sense of directional panning between the rears. Everything sounded fluid with no instance of break up or drop out.
The only slight problem I had was that some of the film’s dialogue, mostly that spoken by Oldman’s character, was recorded a bit low. This required either a volume change or the use of the included subtitles;however, I can’t really fault the audio for this. This doesn’t really impact the overall performance. Sony has put together an all around excellent TrueHD track that will be gaining a bit of play for some time in my theater. This earns a perfect “5 Star Rating“.
Bonus Materials
- BD-Live is included on this release which allows users on a “Profile 2.0” capable Blu-ray Disc Player to access online content such as title specific downloads and trailers for upcoming films from Sony.
- Audio Commentary with director Wolfgang Petersen: This is recycled from the original DVD release.
- Movie Cash: Included is optional movie cash for the upcoming “Taking of Pelham 123” that has to be accessed via BD-Live with an included code.
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
Screenshots:
NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.
