Metacritic-Rezensionen

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]

At once vigorous and old-fashioned, a piece of expertly crafted entertainment that gets the job done with skill and panache. [25 July 1997]

Director Wolfgang Petersen puts such a fresh spin on the familiar that it all works like gangbusters.

Fulfils all its early promise, delivering a well oiled, no-nonsense, supremely entertaining crowd pleaser.

A meat-and-potatoes American thriller that means business all around the world.

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.

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.

A pretty good thriller for the first forty minutes or so. [25 Aug 1997, p. 24]

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.

An over-the-top thriller, too loosely tethered to reality to be a lesson about anything other than the limits of popcorn consumption.