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Air Force One (UMD)
Region 1 • R • Dolby Digital • Available Now
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On June 28th, Sony released two movies that were the highest quality UMDs they had ever done (presentation wise). One was Starship Troopers, and the other was Air Force One… and since then, no other Sony UMD has come close to these two.
Thoughts on the Movie
Harrison Ford as the president? You betcha! Bonus: he was trained as an expert combat fighter, which explains why he’s able to take out the terrorists while his Secret Service agents all lie dead on the floor. So much for that.
That’s basically the movie. Terrorists control Air Force One, and it’s up to the president to regain control and take over the plane. Stuff happens along the way, some predictable, other stuff pretty violent that, although off camera, still caught me by surprise. Then there are the hokey special effects that, while unconvincing on the big screen, actually look better on the smaller PSP screen. Chalk it up as another added bonus, I guess.
While this was a good action movie, it’s definitely not as good as the best “Horror Airplane Genre” standard, Executive Decision. That’s the one with Halle Berry and Kurt Russell, in which Steven Segal gets killed five minutes into the rescue operation on the terrorist controlled plane. That deserves an automatic win right there.
Video Quality
As usual, Sony gives the ol’ choppin treatment to Air Force One’s 2.35 ratio into a 1.78 ratio, which sucks. Thankfully, the cut doesn’t seem too bad on the film, but I rather them leave the film alone then zooming into the picture enough to fill the screen.
That said, this film looks good, although the very first scene of the movie looked completely washed out and hard to see. The black levels could have been better, and the overall look of the film is slightly dull, but is most likely the film’s cinematography.
3/5
Audio Quality
Very loud and sharp, the audio really helps the film’s action scenes come alive. I would have preferred a bit more punch, but overall good sound quality seems to be no problem for Sony. Nice sound overall.
4/5
Extras
This UMD features a pretty interesting menu, with a strange sliding lines type grid for the selections. It’s a bit hard to explain, but it’s about one hundred times better than the generic crap menu we get from Sony these days. Sigh…
We also get… a scene selection! The preview window actually covers the entire background, which is pretty neat, and overall I was very impressed with the UMD presentation.
No extras unfortunately, and only one trailer for Resident Evil 2 that I have seen, oh, maybe 20 times now on a Sony UMD. How about a trailer for a more random Sony release, like Layer Cake or Snatch?
I had said back in June that these two releases were the turning point for future Sony UMDs, as they would all likely have neat menus and scene selections from that point on. Turns out I was wrong. But it’s nice to be reminded of that time that I had hope for Sony’s presentations for UMD movies… real nice.
2.5/5
Overall…
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a studio slowly build up their quality with each release, then reach near excellence, then go back to mediocre for no reason whatsoever. I am utterly baffled by the way Sony handles their UMDs now, with one generic menu spanning dozens and dozens of UMDs.
Thankfully we get a nice package here, with pretty good audio and video, a scene selection, and a nice presentation for $14-18. Not too shabby, and recommended for fans of the movie.
3/5
IGN CONVERSION:
Air Force One
Movie (out of 10): 7
Video (out of 10): 7
Audio (out of 10): 8
Extras (out of 10): 5
Overall: 6.5
Editor's Choice? No
