Very silly and often unintentionally funny, this action film's ridiculous plot poses the idea of the president's plane being hijacked by radical Russian rebels to achieve the release of a Kazakhstan despot the Americans and Russians conspired to capture.

Given the choice of fleeing a hail of gunfire in an emergency escape pod, the President (Harrison Ford) stays on board.

'Let's not forget,' growls a brasshat back home, 'he's a former Medal Of Honor winner. This man knows how to fight.' .

And so he does, knocking off terrorists in the bowels of the plane.

Ford, Gary Oldman (the villain), Glenn Close (the vice-President) and others do what they can with these pantomime characters, but they're all hostage to a risible script.

Lots of excitement, though, and well-staged.