In The Line of Fire

In The Line of Fire is a popular and critically-acclaimed action film starring Clint Eastwood, Rene Russo and John Malkovich. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, Neverending Story, Troy), this 1994 film is (so far) the last film to star Clint Eastwood that Eastwood didn't also direct. The film earned more than twice it's budget at the box office, and introduced character actor John Malkovich to mainstream audiences. It also earned Malkovich his second Oscar nomination.

Clint Eastwood plays Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan, an ageing smartarse and borderline drunk haunted by his inability to save JFK from assassination back in 1963. When a talkative and mysterious nutcase (John Malkovich) decidees to target the current president, Frank asks to be made a presidential bodyguard again in the hope that he might redeem himself. What follows is a tense cat-and-mouse game between the would-be assassin and the old secret service agent who has become the laughing stock of his peers, and when the nature of the nutcase comes to light things start to look very serious indeed.

I really enjoyed this movie. Usually with action films I can take it or leave it - but when you have characterisations as engaging as these and such an intelligent and intense plot you can't help but get swept away in the excitement. Eastwood is great, getting to show his cheeky side in scenes with Russo, and he's at the top of his game throughout. Malkovich is also great as the soft-spoken master-of-disguise, and makes for a memorable villain.

In The Line of Fire makes me wonder how director Wolfgang Petersen went so wrong with Poseidon and Troy. I mean, why did he decide to go all overblown and epic when he was capable of great, entertaining films like this? The dialogue in In The Line of Fire is worth noting too... how can you say no to a film that has Eastwood delivering lines like "You have a rendezvous with my ass, motherfucker" and "I'll be thinkng about that when I'm pissing on your grave".

Good stuff.