verna-a

I thought the other reviews were more negative than they needed to be, so here is my take. This White House drama presents the scenario of Air Force One crashing, but the President was apparently not on board, although video evidence appears to show him boarding. Where is the President? Is he dead or not? What should the Vice President do? Suspense is well sustained throughout this telemovie, and it is well written and crisply directed. Buddy Ebsen copes well with his part, causing my opinion of his talents as an actor to rise! Raymond Massey and Arthur contribute their mature acting talents. Rip Torn is annoying and hammy with his stagey pipe and eyeglasses. Otherwise this is acceptable entertainment, and I don't feel it suffers greatly from being dated, other than some of the scenarios are maybe less sophisticated than they would be in modern versions of the story.

I enjoyed many things about this film - the interesting characters, the great acting, and the scenic setting. Robert Redford was still looking great even though craggy-faced, Morgan Freeman is always full of personality, Jennifer Lopez is decorative, and the child and bit actors are all good too. The personalities they depict, and the evolving relationships between them, are all engaging and sympathetic. Yet the film goes steadily downhill because of the lack of an original and credible storyline. The incidents shown are hackneyed and predictable. From the moment Robert Redford's character punches out the town yobs, my heart sank. How many films has this been copied from? And the stuff about the bear is just stupid. The writers just do not know what to do with the characters they have created, and hence fall back on cliche and sentiment. I was begging for it to end before it got any worse. It's hard to score the film overall, as my feeling about it ranged from warm engagement to hard cringe.

This must have been at the nadir of Hollywood film-making. African adventure with buccaneering white men who set out on various adventures. Throw in some Hollywood stars, some quaint natives (some of them western actors in black face), some colourful settings with dangerous wildlife, and devise some corny and predictable scenarios, and hey, the thing writes itself. There is absolutely no feeling of authenticity, no suspense or interest in the story is developed, and the actors just ham it up. It's lively and good-humoured, which is about all you can say. Or to put it another way, it's absolute tosh and a waste of your time.