BEFORE: Samuel L. Jackson carries over from "The Red Violin", and he plays the U.S. President in this film. Somehow I find that easier to believe than watching him play a violin expert. Because we've seen that for eight years in real life, and even longer on film. There's a whole generation of teens now that doesn't remember the time before there was a black President, and the concept appeared in films before Obama took office - I recall "Deep Impact" in 1998 with Morgan Freeman as the President, and Dennis Haysbert played one on TV in "24" around the same time.
But before that there was "The Fifth Element" with a black President of Earth, but that was science-fiction and set in the future. But before THAT there was "Rufus Jones for President", released in 1933, which depicted Sammy Davis Jr. (at the age of 8) in a dream sequence where he was a young singing, dancing President - wait, I thought the President had to be at least 36 or something?
Then in 2003 came Chris Rock's film "Head of State", and in 2006 Terry Crews played the President (again, set in the future) in "Idiocracy". But during Obama's two terms, of course there was a run on the market, it seemed like every TV show and movie was casting actors as Presidents of color to reflect the times. Now the pendulum has swung back the other way, but I still have a film or two to watch that was part of that trend.
THE PLOT: A young teenager camping in the woods helps rescue the President of the United States when Air Force One is shot down near his campsite.
AFTER: Ah, just a nice, simple story about a young boy coming of age, sent out into the forest alone on his first hunt. And he brings home a large, African-American man. Wait, that doesn't sound right. He's the first one on the scene when Air Force One goes down, and the President was saved by parachuting out in something that looked like a cross between an escape pod from "Star Wars" and the module that the moon astronauts would land in, hopefully in the sea - because who wants a bunch of astronauts crashing into their house?
But this film doesn't try to be any more than it is, there's no philosophizing about the meaning of life or telling fortunes with tarot cards. Who's got time when you have to take down terrorists with only a bow and arrow, or slide down a mountainside in a giant freezer to get away from them? Sure, the Navy SEALS are on the way, but it takes time to get them to Finland, and the leader of the free world is in danger, so we've got to keep moving.
This plays out like a low-rent version of "White House Down" or "Olympus Has Fallen", only with better scenery. The wilderness itself is like a character here, in a part of Finland that's so remote there isn't a village or town for many miles, and the people are so down-to-earth that they may not even recognize the U.S. President - this kid might never have even seen a black man before, so when one comes out of the pod he might even think he's seeing an alien. It's a funny bit, even if it is slightly racist.
We've heard a lot lately about the "secret resistance" in the White House now, but this film was ahead of its time three years ago, with a plot to actively take the President down, and the terrorists here have help from a rogue Secret Service agent, and possibly more help in the situation room, too. Apparently this was a somewhat unpopular President, but technically an American working to kill the Chief Executive is an act of treason, but then again, that's only if people find out about it. Now we're hearing about lots of tiny treasons in the real world, like hiding pieces of paper from Trump so that he can't sign executive orders which will do more harm than good. I'm not sure which is more disturbing, him signing to approve terrible ideas, or knowing that his own staff is sometimes working against him, doing the wrong thing but for the right reasons. I suppose what's most disturbing is the fact that our current President has no concept of object permanence, that if he doesn't see a bill or executive order any more, then to him it no longer exists. Like, even toddlers eventually figure out that their parents don't disappear when they play "Peek-A-Boo".
But White House insiders colluding with terrorists to assassinate the President? I know, it sounds crazy but maybe after another year under Trump, it may still come to that. Keep an eye on this film, just in case it gives somebody like Pence or Gen. Kelly some inspiration. Eh, who am I kidding, that's probably more unlikely than this film's final action sequence, which featured about three or four way-too-convenient coincidences. It felt like somebody just realized that the end of the movie was coming up in 10 minutes, and so everything needed to come together very quickly in one giant logic-free set of circumstances to wrap it all up.
Also starring Onni Tommila, Ray Stevenson (last seen in "Thor: Ragnarok"), Victor Garber (last seen in "Rebel in the Rye"), Jim Broadbent (last seen in "The Legend of Tarzan"), Ted Levine (last seen in "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom"), Felicity Huffman (last seen in "Reversal of Fortune"), Mehmet Kurtulus, Jorma Tommila, Risto Salmi, Rauno Juvonen, Ken Thomas.
RATING: 6 out of 10 surface-to-air missiles
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