In the Line of Fire (MOVIE REVIEW)

Poster for the movie In the Line of Fire, starring Clint Eastwood, Rene Russo & John Malkovich.
(photo credits: Columbia Pictures/Castle Rock Entertainment)

Director: Wolfgang Petersen. 

Producer: Jeff Apple. 

Writer: Jeff Maguire.

Main Cast: 

Clint Eastwood ------ Frank Horrigan

John Malkovich ------ Mitch Leary / John Booth / James Carney

Rene Russo ------ Lilly Raines

Dylan McDermott ---- Al D'Andrea 

Gary Cole ------- Bill Watts

John Mahoney --- Sam Campagna

Rene Russo & Clint Eastwood: great chemistry in scene.
(photo credits: Columbia Pictures/Castle Rock Entertainment)

Release Date: July 9, 1993 (USA) / October 22, 1993 (Brazil)

Running Time: 128 min.

Budget / Box office: US$40 million / US$177 million (box office hit success)

Plot Summary: Frank Horrigan (played by actor/director Clint Eastwood) is a veteran Secret Service agent who is close to retirement. He keeps thinking back to November 22, 1963, when we was a hand-picked agent for President John Kennedy, and, became one of the few to lose a president to an assassin after Kennedy's death. 30 years later, the USA President is the target of former CIA assassin Mitch Leary (John Malkovich, great in Dangerous Liaisons & Con Air), because the assassin felt betrayed by the government. That's the reason for what Leary plans to kill the president. 

Rene Russo in a wonderful performance as Lilly Raines.
(photo credits: Columbia Pictures/Castle Rock Entertainment)

Later, Mr. Horrigan and his partner, Al D'Andrea (Dylan McDermott, from Hamburger Hill & Steel Magnolias) go to the White House meet the other agents, the director Sam Campagna (John Mahoney, from Frasier); Bill Watts (Gary Cole), a young assistant; and Lilly Raines (Rene Russo), the female agent of the Secret Service team, who is enchanted by Frank, and vice-versa. And that is proved when Mr. Horrigan takes Ms. Raines to the Lincoln Memorial, and both eat an ice cream.  He says to her that he believes that female agents work in the Service simply because the President wishes to court the female vote throughout the country. By the time Lilly walks away, Frank thinks to himself: "If she looks back, that means she's interested."

By the movie goes by, Horrigan suspects that Leary uses lot of false identities, such as Joseph McCrawley, John Booth and James Carney, and the assassin makes lots of victims, including Al.

The ending, in my opinion, is fantastic, and it happens in Los Angeles. Leary, now as James Carney, points his plastic gun at Frank, who tries to save the president, but who ended shot was Mr. Horrigan... and everybody ran away. After that, the killer takes Horrigan to the elevator, up up and away, and what surprised him is that the agent had a bulletproof vest. Agent Raines, with all the agents, witness the scene. 
At the hotel elevator, Leary breaks the glass, and both fight there, and at the end, the killer loses balance until his sudden death, thrown up high in the elevator. And Frank ends the movie happily ever after with Lilly Raines, now acclaimed as a hero (and himself decided to announce his retirement).

Rene Russo: concentration and elegance.
(photo credits: Columbia Pictures/Castle Rock Entertainment)

Fun Facts about the movie:

• Rene Russo and John Malkovich will reunite together 25 years after this movie, in Velvet Buzzsaw, by Dan Gilroy, premiering October 26, on Netflix.
• Also in a Wolfgang Petersen movie, Rene Russo portrayed the main character's love interest/female lead, both in the movies In the Line of Fire (1993) and Outbreak (1995).
• Clint Eastwood (Frank Horrigan) and Dylan McDermott (Al D'Andrea)'s characters used Sig Sauer 9mm pistols (Secret Service weapons).
• Clint is also a professional jazz pianist, that's why he did his own piano scenes in this movie.
• And one of my favorite villians of John Malkovich, along with Con Air (1997), and Dangerous Liaisons (1988). In the movie In the Line of Fire, he improvised the scene when he puts his gun on his mouth.

Critical Reception:

• IMDB: 7,2/10
• Rotten Tomatoes: 95% (fresh; 96 reviews).
• CinemaScore : A (A+ to F).
• Metascore: 74/100.

Next week, on July 30, I'll talk about Lilly Raines on "Character on Focus"... 

Enjoy this post...

loveuguys.

xoxoxo 

ME