As tight as action movies get, Air Force One is also a reminder of a time when blockbusters weren’t the exclusive property of comic book fans. Remember when Harrison Ford was the country’s fictional president? Revisit those simpler times with a great 1997 thriller in which Ford plays POTUS, who is aboard the titular plane when it’s hijacked by a team led by Gary Oldman. It’s a tense, well-crafted genre piece that seems overdue for a reappraisal.
Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are excellent as the bad and good guy, respectively, from Ben Foster. James Mangold directed this remake of the 1957 classic, which was based on a short story by the great Elmore Leonard. A remake of Eiichi Kudo’s 1963 film, this is loosely based on actual events from 1844 when 12 samurai storytelling and sprays of samurai blood. Takashi Miike has made directed over 100 movies, and this is one of the best, a stylish throwback to samurai cinema of old anchored by the modern filmmaking prowess of one of the best filmmakers alive. O’Connell is fantastic in a film that increases tension with each subsequent scene. The great Jack O’Connell ( Godless) plays a new recruit in the British Army who has basically been stranded behind enemy lines after a violent encounter and is forced to fight his way home. Yann Demange directed this tight and taut retelling of an event in Belfast during the height of The Troubles in 1971.