This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Blistering performances.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Gene Hackman plays Green Beret sergeant Johnny Gallagher; stationed in Germany, he receives the order to escort a habitually rebellious soldier (Tommy Lee Jones) back to the States for a court-martial. When the soldier, or "package", escapes from him, Johnny realizes that some sort of master conspiracy is going on, and that he basically got used. With both police and the military after him, he will be able to rely on just a select few people for assistance, including his ex-wife Eileen (who is herself in the military), and his old friend Milan Delich (Dennis Franz), a lieutenant with the Chicago P.D.Somewhat under rated, among the scattering of classics on director Andrew Davis' resume, "The Package" is a slick conspiracy thriller melding themes of political intrigue and paranoia. Written by John Bishop, it's not a great story at all, but it is pretty entertaining. Even this viewer had an idea fairly early on where the story was headed, and it didn't exactly prove him wrong.Still, it's pretty easy to watch, thanks to typically sharp direction by Davis, efficient pacing, and excellent use of both German and Chicago locations. The Windy City was Davis' old stamping ground, and he uses a number of his repertory players (you'll certainly recognize some of them). Hackman is an engaging hero, and he and the effervescent Cassidy do have some nice chemistry. Jones, in the first of his three collaborations with Davis, gets to have some fun, and be somewhat enigmatic; his character is a total mercenary, yet you never really learn much about him. Franz has one of his best feature film roles, and is allowed to head into the final battle right at Hackmans' side. Pam Grier and Reni Santoni are somewhat under utilized, but John Heard, Kevin Crowley, Ron Dean, Nathan Davis (Andrews' father), Chelcie Ross, Joe Greco, and Marco St. John comprise a very fine supporting cast. Heard, in particular, exudes pompous villainy in a subtle way. You don't see him chewing on the scenery.All in all, good fun, although it's the kind of thing that might not hold up to any intense scrutiny from the viewer.Seven out of 10.

As the cold war starts to thaw the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union are on the brink of signing an historic treaty that will lead to the scrapping of their nuclear arsenals… not everybody wants this to happen though; certain members of the military on both sides are determined to scupper the treaty. To this end Sgt. Gallagher is tasked with escorting prisoner Walter Henke from West Berlin to the US; to him it is a routine if somewhat tedious task but it soon becomes clear that it is anything but routine. His prisoner is helped to escape at the airport and when Gallagher goes to see the man's wife he learns that he wasn't Walter Henke! He goes to see his ex-wife, an army colonel, to see if she can help him get to the bottom of it; she and her assistant manage to find out that the man's real name is Thomas Boyette and he has a military record linking him to a series of war zones. Gallagher soon finds himself framed for the murder of Henke's wife so must go on the run with his ex. They follow the trail to Chicago where they meet up with policeman Lt. Milan Delich, an old friend of Gallagher's. As they get closer to Boyette they get in increasing danger as the conspirators are determined to stop them preventing Boyette from carrying out his mission.This is a solid cold war thriller made when relationships between east and west were improving but nobody suspected that the Soviet Union would shortly cease to exist. Gene Hackman does a good job as Sgt. Gallagher and Tommy Lee Jones is fine as Boyette. The story is a bit far-fetched but if you can suspend your disbelief it is fairly gripping. There is a sense of paranoia as Gallagher has very few people he can trust and many of those who aren't actually bad think he is! There isn't a huge amount of over the top action but what there is, is fairly exciting and fairly believable. If you enjoy thrillers that have some mystery but aren't too convoluted you should enjoy this.

Johnny Gallagher is sent from Germany with a prisoner. The prisoner escapes from the men's room at National Airport and Hackman begins his search for his man.Enlisting the help of his ex-wife and various old friends, he finds that the prisoner is part of a plot by senior military personnel on both sides.Their aim is to kill a very high-ranking world figure in order to sabotage arms control talks....For a film directed by a seasoned action auteur, and staring behemoths like Hackman and Jones, the film is really boring and mundane in places.Made in a time when film makers thought that audiences would be enthralled by stuffy men in rooms talking a lot, a lot of the cast are wasted, and the action scenes are just a montage of men with moustaches chasing Hackman and co.Hackman and Jones are great though, and when they share the screen, the film blisters in entertainment, but it isn't long enough.The last ten minutes are interesting and Davis does an amazing job of the climax, but we have to trawl through a mundane set up before the end.A waste.

The Package (1989)Well, if you can get past the first half hour you're past the worst of this up and down thriller. It's never brilliant, but the scenes in the U.S. (Chicago and Washington) are more convincing than the East Berlin stuff, which has only some nice location shooting to recommend it. Later on there are car chases that are fun, and more nice location shooting, and even some very convincingly boring political speeches (brief). At its best, there is tension and surprise, but not often enough even of that.Many of the minor actors simply can't hold up the very weak script. The exception? Gene Hackman, his usual brilliant, subtle, convincing self. It's very much a one man show, but a tough act even for him with the forced plot, the forced turn of events, the hyped up events, and the plain old bad lines now and then. Just to be clear this is high stakes stuff, there are Commies, neo-Nazis, corrupt cops, corrupt servicemen, an intrigue against the president, protests against disarmament (a timely issue 1989) and lots of old and new friendships tested and questionable. It's a lot for any movie, and too much for a clumsily written one, which this is.There is Tommi Lee Jones to be reckoned with, also convincing, but with a small sporadic part. The music by James Newton Howard is pushy at first (to the point of annoying) but settles in to a professional gait that really works. The filming is quite good if not exceptional, and edited pretty well. Some of you might like all of this a lot, but overall there's just that issue of corny and exaggerated lines which will sometimes make you cringe. And the painfully cliffhanger ending? It's what must happen in this kind of formula movie.Director Andrew Davis gives a preview, in a way, of that chase and intrigue film he would direct to great success a few years later, "The Fugitive," a better movie in every way. Watch this with that in mind for something to do.