| In the Line of Fire | | Cast : | Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich, Rene Russo | | Director : | Wolfgang Petersen | | Studio : | Columbia Tri-Star | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | July 09, 1993 | | DVD Released Date : | February 27, 2001 | | Language : | Unknown (Dubbed), English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | May 30, 2005 | | Summary | Typical Souless Formulaic Hollywood Thriller | Content
 | Highly overrated and poorly written movie which essentially was a compilation of every cliche ever used in the thriller genre. These include the brilliant madman killer who makes taunting phone calls to the good guy cop, "surprise" plot twists, various disguises, horribly insipid dialogue, completely predictable "romance" between the older agent (Eastwood) and a much younger attractive Secret Service agent, etc... Of course the formula wouldn't be complete without some absurd plot contrivance designed to make the audience care about this drek- in this case, it is Eastwood's obsessive need to redeem himself 30 years after he botched the JFK security detail. Right. Anyway, its all been done so much better before. Rent Dirty Harry or Silence of the Lambs. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 05, 2005 | | Summary | CLINT and John!! | Content
| In this movie we find a secert service agent past his prime trying to prevent the assasination of the president. Clint Eastwood's best acting job since his Dirty Harry day's. As always John malcavich does an excellent job at acting. Hands up for all acting in this movie. and great story line that made the movie very intreging. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 14, 2005 | | Summary | Trying to stop an assasin | Content
| "In the Line of Fire" stars Clint Eastwood as Frank Horrigan, an aging Secret Service agent who becomes involved in a cat and mouse chase with an insane but brilliantly trained assasin (John Malkovitch) who has vowed to murder the President. The emotional intensity comes from the fact that in November 1963 Horrigan was not able to save Kennedy from being killed. Eastwood plays Horrigan the way you have come to expect him to, sort of an older, slower version of Dirty Harry. Except that he is haunted by depression because of the Kennedy assaination. But now he must get over the doubt and depression to catch a new killer. And about this new killer; he calls himself Booth (do you all get it?) He is played by the excellent method actor Malkovitch. He dosn't have a lot to say, so you do not get any depth of character about him. All we ever find out is through other sources; like his former employers at NSA. Apperently he is a disgruntled employee. Why, we don't really know. So, how is a depressed aging Secret Service agent to find this near perfect killer? Well, he has friends who are helping him along. One is his young, green partner, played by Dylan McDermott; he is shacky but ultimatly dependable. The other is a new love interest, played by Rene Russo. I hate to say this, but she is the movies only flaw. She is decades younger than Eastwood, and she is supposed to be a credible romantic interest? I am sorry, I don't think so. As for the suspence, I loved it, it was wound up tight like a good watch. It is a little over two hours long but it nbever feels it. In many ways it reminds me of Fred Zimmerman's 1973 intrigue classic "The Day of the Jackal" becuase both movies have to do with watching both good guys and bad moving closer to the day of death; although this movie, under Wolfgang Perterson, is much faster paced. I whole heartedly recomend this movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 12, 2004 | | Summary | Riviting suspenseful cat and mouse game. | Content
| Agent Horrigan, brilliantly played by Eastwood, is haunted by memories of the past in dealing with the present. John Malkovich is just perfect as the creepy, calculating, menacing, smart, would be assassin of the President. He takes a preverse pleasure in putting Horrigan in a cat and mouse game trying to figure out who he is, and where he's going to commit the act.
You are literaly put in the middle of the game. You really feel like you are with Horrigan as he's chasing Malkovich. Rene Russo is good as his partner who can't really appreciate the ghosts that are haunting Horrigan.
This is a taunt, fast paced thrill ride that doesn't let up until the ending. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 24, 2004 | | Summary | A Good Suspense Thriller Despite Gaps In Plot | Content
| Wolfgang Petersen's (Das Boot; Air Force One; Troy) suspense thriller dealing with an old Secret Service agent's race against time to stop a deranged assassin from killing the President. An above-par suspense film in which its fallacies in plot are overcome by a decent screenplay and great acting.
Secret Service agent Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) is an old-timer who's riddled with guilt after failing to stop JFKs assassination. He soon goes on a race against time with the help of a fellow agent (Renee Russo) after JFKs elusive and psychotic assassin (John Malkovich) resurfaces to do a job on the current president. Will they stop him in time?
The brilliant acting skills of John Malkovich as the demented assassin makes this movie. His portrayal of an assassin who sees his victims as hunting trophies keeps the audience in suspense. The acting of Clint Eastwood and Renee Russo is also quite good. The film does have several gaps in logic which, fortunately, are not too intrusive so as to undermine the whole plot. First, Clint Eastwood's character is an impossibility. The Secret Service agents assigned as bodyguards to the President and other public officials are an elite group within the Secret Service itself: the Service's primary function being the enforcement of federal counterfeiting laws. Those agents who are chosen to protect the President work only for two years at most and are then rotated back to regular duties. As with all law-enforcement agencies, the Secret Service has a mandatory retiring age that is much lower than that of other types of employment. Clint Eastwood's character is much too old to be a Secret Service agent and, even if we were to accept the far-fetched notion that he could serve that long, he would still have been rotated by 1963 anyway. Even if that weren't the case, no Secret Service agent whose assignment was assassinated would be kept on a protection detail: certainly not for 30 more years. Another reality gap is the assassin's polymer pistol. Altough accuracy wouldn't be too important at point-blank range, a barrel made out of even the strongest polymers would immediately melt or explode as the first bullet reaches the muzzle: even with our technology today, a gun barrel has to be composed of a sufficiently heat-resistant metal to fire a bullet traveling at least 500 feet/second safely and accurately.
Despite some gaps in realism, the film stands above average due to John Malkovich's impeccable acting. The performances of Renee Russo and Clint Eastwood were quite good as well. This is a good film to rent or own. |
|
|
|
|
