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In The Line Of Fire (1993)
Rating: 6
Dir: Wolfgang Petersen
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Main Players: Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich, Rene Russo.
Story: A nut-case wants to kill the US President and it's up to the Secret Service to stop him.
Comment: Let's start with what's wrong. Firstly, I wouldn't put an aged Eastwood on active duty guarding my car - but then, this is Hollywood and it's OK to put a guy who pants after running 100 yard as one of the people who is the shadow of the most powerful man in the world. Next ... well, there's nothing else. The show's pretty hunky-dory from start to finish.
Malkovich as a psychotic nut is really fun to watch. But he seems tired when he reprises this role in Con Air, albeit with a much worse script. There is, of course a difference between a psychotic nut and a creepy psychotic - Hannibal Lecter is a prime example of the latter. What's the difference? Well, you can develop an attachment to psychotic nuts; but you just wanna make holes in the body of creepy nuts with an Uzi. :-)
Movies like this will work or fall flat on its face on the simple element of chemistry between the opposing forces of good and evil. You MUST have a credible bad guy for the good guy to beat and beat well. It cannot just be a quick clichéd solution. The finale must be spectacular - and there must be a twist in the plot somewhere for you to marvel at the cat-and-mouse game. On all counts, this film delivers. And it doesn't dwell on the romance between Eastwood and Russos' characters too much ( it would have been a farce if it did ) during the movie but nevertheless goes with the flow at the end.
Petersen proves to be a very able director at conveying action and suspense. His style is one of combining the more prominent action movie directing style, so much so that you don't really notice it ( a good comparison would be a John Woo movie ). In a way, it's not good because you don't really sit up and take notice of the style of storytelling; but it is also good because you get to see how effective a storyteller he really is.
Conclusion: A worthwhile watch.