Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Stars: Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich, Rene Russo Plot: When a Secret Service agent (Eastwood) who failed to protect John F. Kennedy senses the current President’s life is in danger, he vows not to make the same mistake again.
A somewhat less-than-sprightly Clint does battle with rent-a-baddie Malkovich in this relatively lightweight drama that plays out more like a TV movie than a cinematic cat-and-mouse thriller.
Eastwood’s Frank Horrigan is haunted by his inability to protect JFK from his assassin and must fight that particular demon throughout in order to stop a rogue former CIA operative carrying out his threat to kill the President. The whole feel of the film is very 1990s and now looks particularly dated, although there are fine performances from the two leads and Rene Russo, who doesn’t stretch herself but is very adept at being a fine supporting character, as ever.
There are shades of Die Hard in the finale, but Malkovich’s Mitch Leary isn’t a patch on Alan Rickman’s pantomime villain Hans Gruber – he’s played far menacing scoundrels than this, it has to be said (see Dangerous Liaisons). On the whole it’s pretty predictable, but Clint Eastwood is always worth a watch.
Rating: 
