Veteran , aging Secret Service Agent Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) is a dinosaur from the Kennedy era , he is a man haunted by his failure to save President J. F. K. while serving protection detail in Dallas , Texas . Jogging alongside the president's car , he now has problems keeping up .Thirty years later, a menacing bad boy , the psycho calling himself "Booth" (John Malkovich) threatens Frank's honor and life of the current President (Jim Curley) , forcing Horrigan to come back to protection detail to take on the ghosts from his past . While Frank joins forces young agent Al D'Andrea (Dylan McDermott) and agent Raines (Rene Russo) who begins a charmingly tentative romance with Horrigan .
Moving film with a strong battle of wills , including thrills , noisy action , nail-biting as well as fast-paced pursuits , lots of dry humor and a love story . Concerning a cat-and-mouse game betwen two peculiar characters and despite a suspensefully edited final , the movie results to be a tad long . Clint Eastwod's back , now as Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan who couldn't save Kennedy, but he's determined not to let a clever assassin take out this president , here Clint sensibly performing on his advancing years to add a few frayed edges to the role . The Secret Service cooperated in making this film and most scenes are believable and adequate with a few hollywood exceptions , as it clearly pays tribute to the secret agents who protect US Presidents . Highlight of the movie is the efficiently rather than excitingly shot chase scene on the rooftop . Main cast are top-notch , Clint Eastwood plays in his usual style , he meets his match in a spooky caller assassin magnificently played by John Malkovich who nearly overshadowed Clint , while Rene Russo performs an intelligent agent as well as his love interest . Pretty good support cast such as : Dylan McDermott , Gary Cole , Fred Dalton Thompson , John Heard , John Mahoney , Clyde Kusatsu , Tobin Bell , Gregory Alan Williams , among others .
It contains terrific and stirring musical score by the great Ennio Morricone . Colorful and appropriate cinematography by John Bailey . The motion picture waas well directed by Wolfgang Petersen, from casting to scripting the movie was notable and our director made a good job . Wolfgang first big hit was ¨Das Boot¨ , following ¨The NeverEnding Story¨, and going on Hollywood productions as ¨Shattered¨ , ¨Enemy mine¨ . And a series of disaster genre movies as ¨Outbreak¨(1995) about the outbreak of a killer virus. This film had shades of an Irwin Allen disaster movie, The Swarm (1978), about the outbreak of killer bees. Both films had the military and scientists clash, also both had choppers all over the place. Then came ¨Air Force One¨ (1997), about terrorists taking over the presidents plane. This film had shades of a 1970s Airport disaster film . ¨The Perfect Storm¨ (2000) came next, and while the script about a boat at sea in a storm was okay, the constant fake looking computer generated sea water damaged the film. And then came ¨Poseidon¨ (2006) that was Petersen's worst action/disaster movie by a long way, dealing with a passenger ship turning over at sea. Outbreak just hinted at being an Irwin Allen remake , but with Poseidon Petersen failed at boxoffice , it was now official this was a remake of Allen's The Poseidon Adventure . Rating : 7/10 . Better than average . Well worth watching . The flick will appeal to Clint Eastwood fans .
