Sadly Over-hyped

Beautiful, moving film.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is a great show; I have always been interested in law enforcement. When I was a child, I wanted to be a cop. I used to play at cops and robbers all the time! I still dream about being a cop, or an agent of some kind.FBI agents are fighting to stop the criminal ways of Mr Malloy and his people in Richmond, Virginia (I think that is where it's set).I enjoyed every episode, the acting is good, the script is well written and the action is realistic.Leslie Hope was good as the firm boss who seemed to be on top of everything but was having emotional problems and complications with her child.Leslie Bibb was convincing as the rookie agent who really came into her own towards the end of the show.Anson Mount played his character well. An Agent who spent 2 years undercover in jail so he could infiltrate Mr Malloy's gang and is dealing with some problems as a result of it.Julie Ann Emery played an FBI agent who was also a mother of two and had marriage problems.Jeffery D. Sams played another fresh outta training agent who was 100% confident in himself and seemed to pick things up straight away.David Paymer plays his character brilliantly. He comes across nicely as a criminal with principals! LOL.The show had some surprising concepts and ideas. I was not expecting the raping of Mrs Malloy, the dead baby in a dumpster, the ex-con trying to kill Agent Sampson's (Julie Ann Emery) children. The woman who found out her husband didn't die but ran away, and then turned up again and she shot him and how this affected Bibb's character because she lost her husband during a 9/11 attack. The most surprising thing was that this Agent (Anson Mount) had been undercover in JAIL for 2 years just to get close to Mr Malloy (David Paymer), wow...talk about commitment to your work!! I can imagine though on the set someone calling 'Leslie' and both Bibb and Hope replying at the same time, that must of gotten confusing.This is a great show and I am just upset that it only had one season.

Network: ABC; Genre: Crime Drama; Content Rating: TV-MA (for strong language and violence); Classification: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4)Season Reviewed: Complete Series (1 season)Rob Lurie's 'Line of Fire' follows a war that erupts between the Mob and the FBI. The show has an interesting set-up to this: a foot chase between an agent and a mobster ends when a member of each side gets off a shot at the same time, effectively killing each other. Lurie is the hack movie director of corny fluff such as 'The Last Castle' so at first I was pleasantly surprised with this offering. The groundwork is set for this to be a great show. The formula is familiar but the characters are solid and well developed. That acting is outstanding. David Paymer, a longtime favorite of mine, is terrific as mob boss Jonah Malloy. Paymer is given a catch phrase that perfectly fits the character: "That's that with that". Thanks to the show's short life it will surely become a favorite among cult TV quotes. Everyone else plays 2nd fiddle to Paymer, but the strongest of which is Leslie Hope. Hope got a lot of flack for her damsel-in-distress role in the first season of '24' but now she proves without question what a great and powerful actor she really is. Had the show focused more closely on her and Paymer that might have been the fuel it needed to strike a fire. Leslie Bibb (an intriguing post-9/11 character) and Julie Ann Emery (in a nice little domestic role reversal) also stand out. There's also the closeted homosexual agent in the mix, now requisite in this type of show to give it the appearance of "edge". 'Fire' looks good and has a classy, if slightly off kilter, intro. Finally, I though, a good, adult crime series. One where the emphasis is on characters and their struggles and not a jittery camera. But, as much as I want to love it, 'Fire' never seems to get off the ground. I waited until the very end for the writers to dig in and feast on all this show's juicy potential. Suck the lemon dry. What's the point in having such great characters and great performances if you aren't going to do anything with them? Each episode is like a microcosm of the series. It will start out with a gripping premise and then wander off, get lost in itself and end up going nowhere. It's rejection of the "gritty cop drama" school of cinematography is refreshing, I like the languishing '70s look, but it's often too slow and unfocused to stay interesting. It started out great, it had everyone in the palm of its hand with deliciously evil characters, noble questionable heroes and premium cable language and violence (Did you ever want to hear "s***" on network TV?) and then lost its grip. A more creative technical staff could have tightened up the mountain of technical problems that made this show so dry and monotonous. The final episodes (aired by ABC as a 2-hour event movie in a shocking display of respect toward the show) where actually quite good. Great concept, well acted, but like all of them, it meandered in the long middle act into ground so familiar I lost interest. Fortunately, my patience was rewarded and it ended with a bang. Literally. A round of applause is deserved for pumping fresh and impressive life into the time-tested car crash set-piece. Oh well, we'll always have the catch phrase. Thankfully, it wasn't shoved down our throat. NBC could learn a thing or two. In 5 years people will be saying it and it will be an obscure reference to a 1 season series called 'Line of Fire'. That's that with that. * * ½

this show could be strong of ABC as long as they maintain the feud between the malloy crime family and the FBI. The main problem i have with this show is the plain stereotypical politically correct characters. The fact that one agent is a strong single mother and the other is a widow from 9-11 who constantly brings it up is kinda annoying. As long as this show maintains the fbi vs mafia storyline and does not begin to focus on the personal lives of the stereotypical agents it should be pretty good.

Now, the advertisements for this show made me laugh. I am a college student in Richmond, Virginia. Although once the murder capital of the United States, and right now, we are currently the STD and AIDS capital, (something to really be proud of). Richmond has never experienced an underground mob, nor do we have many FBI agents wandering around. Richmond's life revolves around the three large state universities in the heart of the city. Nothing as interesting as Line Of Fire ever happens here. However, I do find myself watching each week in order to catch glimpses of places I recognize. Odd how the background of thier publicity photo is the same thing I see out of my window each day. This is my second year in Richmond and I've seen many large movies being filmed here. Never has a show stayed to be filmed in Richmond. I look forward to starsearching. ;)