Rating of
3.5/4
Good dramatic movie
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/02/08
Veteran Secret Service agent "Frank Horrigan" has been working undercover detail with younger partner "Al D'Andrea" (Dylan McDermott).
After breaking up a counterfeiting operation, "Horrigan" is assigned to check up on a man who has threatened the life of the "President of the United States of America" (Jim Curley). What he finds is personally disturbing -- a shrine of the Kennedy Assassination. "Horrigan" worked the detail protecting President John F. Kennedy (who is seen in at least one autopsy photo in the shrine and the infamous Zapruter film edited in as flashbacks) on that day in Dallas.
The man (John Malkovich) becomes obsessed with "Horrigan" and follows his every move. All the while planning to murder the "President". He makes some kind of an erie connection with "Horrigan" and calls him on the phone to taunt him.
Now, "Horrigan" has to hunt down a man with a mysterious background before his threat is carried out and another President under "Horrigan's" watch is killed while in office.
This is a pretty well-paced psychological thriller with good performances from the entire cast. You really start to believe Eastwood has been part of the Secret Service for a very long time (30 years as the film joins his "life"). He plays an agent as close to perfect as he could. His performance is very strong in this film. Malkovich is also really good as an insane madman bent on not only taking the life of the most powerful man in the Western Hemisphere, but to taunt "Horrigan" using what has to be the worst thing in any Secret Service agent's career.
Rene Russo does a pretty good job as the only female assigned to take the madman down, and does a pretty good job at trying to deflect "Horrigan's" flirting. The chemistry between her and Eastword is not perfect if you ask me, but it is close to perfection and they do work pretty well in scenes together.
Even though his part is a bit small, Fred Thompson, who recently dropped his real-life bid for the Oval Office, does an excellent job as the "Secretary of State". I liked the scenes where he and "Horrigan" butted heads frequently. His performance is pretty memorable.
Believe it or not, not everything you see are real. In many scenes, you see various shots of the "President" addressing crowds with some of the Secret Service watching the crowd. The crowds were actually listening to speeches from former President Bill Clinton, and they have added in the actors over Clinton and the stages he is on. In another scene, a small group of people were filmed watching a Presidential motorcade, but in post-production, they copied this small group and placed them on both sides of the road. Because this movie is about 15 years old, you can tell where people were added into the scene. However, one special effect that still works well is the scenes where a young "Horrigan" has been inserted into news footage protecting various real-life presidents. What they did was placed footage of Eastwood from one of his early "Dirty Harry" movies and inserted the young Eastwood into the footage a la "Forrest Gump".
There is some mild violence in this film with a little blood splattering here and there. There really is nothing too gory. There is also some fairly strong language as well.
There really isn't many flaws in this film, and it is really fun to watch. I would say that you should put this in your top 4 "To rent" list. Or, check to see if this movie is on HBO or another movie network. Or at least rent it on On Demand like I did.
