Touches You

So much average

Pretty Good

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

What a brilliant film. Seriously, I commend everyone involved in the production of this movie. Great performances and overall hard work all around. This movie has everything going for it. An awesome screenplay, a captivating, stunning performance from John Malkovich, and a creepy yet thrilling aura surrounding every scene. This movie could have easily catapulted into one of my favorites ever. It is a very entertaining movie.Of course, it does have its flaws. The biggest flaw to this movie is Rene Russo's character. Now I recognize the need for strong female characters. But she's not exactly a strong character at all. In fact, her character is never really significant throughout the entire film. I respect Russo as an actress, and I'm sure if the screenplay was further refined, her character could have been developed further. Still, I recommend it. It makes for a fun movie night, and it's ever enjoyable despite some flaws, which you can easily get over by paying attention to how awesome Eastwood and Malkovich's battle of wits really is.

Wolfgang Peterson is a well-known film director from Germany, best known for his action- packed, high calibre blockbusters. In The Line Of Fire is his first American thriller at the highest level. Peterson broke out in 1981's Das Boot, the best German epic ever. The Neverending Story showed his versatility and In The Line Of Fire cemented his legacy and best-known genre to tackle: a political thriller. Only Wolfgang Peterson could have made a movie this exciting.I have no interest in politics, but I found this movie to be thoroughly engaging and very fun. It is about a Secret Service Agent (Eastwood) who is haunted by his failure to save John F. Kennedy. A psychotic madman (Malkovich) toys with him, saying he plans on assassinating the current president. Eastwood does a job well-done in acting, one of the best he's ever done (I'd say). But John Malkovich steals the show in every scene he's in. I'm surprised the American Film Institute didn't put him on their list of 50 Greatest Villains. He's sure better than some that made the cut. Many political thrillers aren't really interesting to me. There's too much talk about the different parties and subjects that only avid news watchers would like. In The Line Of Fire is about battling a hit-man. The political bit don't get in the way at all. Since there's many subplots about the characters that tie together very well, the strength makes it outweigh most other flicks like this. To top it all off, Wolfgang Peterson gives us a picture with a direction that only the best can do. Any perilous thriller like this is a sure winner, but Peterson does more. He treats Malkovich's character like an actual monster. Similar to what John Carpenter did with Michael Myers in the original Halloween, we do not really see Malcovich's character into part way through the movie. He uses lighting and camera tricks to keep him a mystery, a thing. After a while, at the right point, he had to have been shown. Does Peterson stop his clever tricks? No. That is just when they begin.

Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood), a veteran US secret service agent, has never recovered from that fateful day (22 November 1963) when President John F. Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald at his watch. Blaming himself for not reacting sooner and taking the fateful bullet, Horrigan became occasionally brooding and turned to liquor, actions that drove away his wife and daughter. He stayed in the bureaucracy though and requests an assignment to protect the latest president thirty years after the Catastrophe in Dallas. Now in his early sixties, the grizzled and intense Horrigan questions his own decision and forms doubts whether he still has the physical vigor to stand up to the job demands. Secret Service Director Sam Campagna (John Mahoney) backs him and grants his request, but Assistant Director Bill Watts (Gary Cole), although reluctantly agreeing to the new assignment, is so strongly against Horrigan that he revels in his apparent faux pas (like running out of breath while running alongside the presidential vehicle). Chief of Staff Harry Sargent (Fred Dalton Thompson) is similarly not in Horrigan's corner. The president is facing a very difficult reelection campaign, and Sargent does not want him to look awkwardly or cowardly in the face of potential danger.Mitch Leary (John Malcovitch), a trained operative for the CIA who was laid off, claims he was double-crossed by the US government and wants revenge. What is this loose cannon's plan? He longs to kill the current president (Jim Curley, code name "Traveler"). Calling himself "Booth" (after you know whom) he takes the offensive and continually torments Horrigan on the telephone, explaining exactly what he intends to do. Booth had studied Frank Horrigan for years, and is so clever and conditioned and twisted that he is able to burrow deeply into the latter's mind. A master of disguise, Booth continually toys with Horrigan, recounting parallels in their life experiences. At other times, he creates bummers. For example, consider the scene when President Curley is holding an AFL-CIO rally in Chicago. Booth uses pins to pop display balloons, badgering Horrigan into believing that gunshots are being fired. Horrigan's actions caused disruption and humiliated the president, although the agent did show his self-assurance and quick reaction, and was even willing to take a hit for "Traveler." Now Frank has a partner, Al D'Andrea (Dylan McDermott), and the two of them had undermined a deadly band of Phoenix counterfeiters early in the film. D'Andrea, though, is fated for a different destiny even though for more than two-thirds of the film Horrigan and he tail Leary. The psychopath divulges that he could have killed Horrigan many times but left him alone ("I have allowed you to live so you show me some g**damn respect!"). And at one point the aging Horrigan nearly perishes from a rooftop fall. Now when the denouement eventually arrives, will he have the efficacy to save the president? Malcovitch's acting is always of high quality. He is just so believable as a creep that one almost begins to hate him. Rene Russo may have come late to Hollywood (in her later thirties), but she already had polished acting tools and looks to match. Her role here is Lilly Raines, a capable and strong agent herself who is on presidential protection detail; later she becomes Horrigan's younger lover. Of course the beginning was rocky, especially after Horrigan made several offensive statements. But Raines eventually saw his masculine sensitivity, charm, and his real respect for her, and she shows her own capacity to fall in love.This movie is a nice vehicle for Eastwood, a good actor who easily handles similar roles. Director Wolfgang Petersen created a competent film with a novel idea of a man obsessed with his inability to save a past president from a real, historical assassination. Those pictures and footages (digital effects) of a young Horrigan inserted into actual pictures of Kennedy are believable. Also, the sets are convincing (White House, Air Force One, police escort, rallies). The only drawback may be that the movie runs a few minutes too long. Recommended.

Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) is a no non-sense secret service agent who is stilled haunted by his failure at the Kennedy assassination. He has a young eager partner Al D'Andrea (Dylan McDermott). They investigate Joseph McCrawley as a possible threat to the president. Then Frank gets a call from McCrawley (John Malkovich) who is fixated on him. Agent Bill Watts (Gary Cole) in charge of the presidential detail doesn't want to hear it but agent Lilly Raines (Rene Russo) is interested. Frank gets back on the presidential detail with the help of mentor Sam Campagna (John Mahoney).Despite its two hours running time, director Wolfgang Petersen weaves a tightly wound thriller. Clint Eastwood is the perfect choice for the world wearied expert agent. John Malkovich has a creepy menace to him. Also I love the wooden gun. It's not a complicated story but Eastwood keeps our attention throughout.