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In the Line of Fire

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In the Line of Fire (1993)

July. 08,1993
|
7.2
|
R
| Drama Action Thriller Crime
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Veteran Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan is a man haunted by his failure to save President Kennedy while serving protection detail in Dallas. Thirty years later, a man calling himself "Booth" threatens the life of the current President, forcing Horrigan to come back to protection detail to confront the ghosts from his past.

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HeadlinesExotic
1993/07/08

Boring

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CommentsXp
1993/07/09

Best movie ever!

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Mathilde the Guild
1993/07/10

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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Kayden
1993/07/11

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

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slightlymad22
1993/07/12

Continuing my plan to watch every Clint Eastwood movie in order, I come to In The Line Of Fire (1993)Plot In A Paragraph: Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan (Eastwood) couldn't save Kennedy, but he's determined not to let a clever assassin (John Malcovic) take out this president.In my my review of The Rookie, I said there was nothing new to see, and In The Line of Fire has a story similar to many of Eastwood's Dirty Harry movies, in which a psycho killer plays games with the cop, who is ordered off the case and then continues to investigate it anyway, regardless of what his superiors say, and he is helped by a loyal partner. The movie even supplies Clint with two partners.However, despite the routine plot, In The Line Of Fire is not a rehash or retread of something we have seen before and it's not predictable (OK some of it is) what it is, is a tight, tense, well acted, well directed thriller, and whilst most action/thrillers these days are about stunts and action. In Tue Line Of Fire has a brain, and it sits in my Top 10 Eastwood movies. In my review of The Rookie, I also said a movie is only as good as their villains, and In the Line of Fire has a great one in John Malkovic, who was deservedly nominated for an Oscar. The one aspect of the movie I didn't like was the love story between Cline (62) and Rene Russo (39) it was totally unbelievable and out of place. Clint was on a roll as In The Line Of Fire became Clint's biggest grossing movie to date, grossing $102 million dollars at the domestic box office to end the year as the 7th highest grossing movie of 1993. It was Clint's first in the Top 10 grossing movies of the year in a decade. It would sadly be the last time (to date) that a movie starring Clint made the Top 10.

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sddavis63
1993/07/13

Leads Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich were both very good in this. As Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan and potential presidential assassin Mitch Leary they play an interesting enough cat and mouse game. The back story has Horrigan as the last surviving member of the detail on duty when President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Already tormented by the memory, he's tormented further by Leary, who toys with him as he openly shares his plan. That interplay is well done, but it does seem to drag on for too long, perhaps because Leary's motive in tormenting Horrigan wasn't especially clear. Why so much obsession with Horrigan? I never really understood that. Why not just seek out the chance to assassinate the president? Another point I wasn't clear on is why Horrigan - clearly aging and out of shape - would be put back on the presidential protection team, against the wishes of the head of the detail? It moves the story forward but honestly makes no sense.The weakest part of the movie revolved around agent Lilly Raines, played by Rene Russo. Russo's performance was fine, but the character didn't hit home with me - especially when a "quasi" romance between Raines and Horrigan was introduced. Why do that? The age difference made it unlikely to say the least. It doesn't really move the story forward at all, but it does seem to detract a bit from the character's credibility. I mean, I can understand Horrigan's interest. Russo is lovely. But I couldn't wrap my head around why Raines would be the least bit interested.After playing the cat and mouse for a couple of hours, it all leads up to an exciting enough climax. All the performances here are fine, but the story seemed to me to be a bit lacking in some ways. (6/10)

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Bhargav Annigeri
1993/07/14

What a brilliant film. Seriously, I commend everyone involved in the production of this movie. Great performances and overall hard work all around. This movie has everything going for it. An awesome screenplay, a captivating, stunning performance from John Malkovich, and a creepy yet thrilling aura surrounding every scene. This movie could have easily catapulted into one of my favorites ever. It is a very entertaining movie.Of course, it does have its flaws. The biggest flaw to this movie is Rene Russo's character. Now I recognize the need for strong female characters. But she's not exactly a strong character at all. In fact, her character is never really significant throughout the entire film. I respect Russo as an actress, and I'm sure if the screenplay was further refined, her character could have been developed further. Still, I recommend it. It makes for a fun movie night, and it's ever enjoyable despite some flaws, which you can easily get over by paying attention to how awesome Eastwood and Malkovich's battle of wits really is.

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Mr-Fusion
1993/07/15

It's amazing what 20 years will do for a movie's impact, because I remembered IN THE LINE OF FIRE being a lot more . . . thrilling. Aside from Malkovich's off-the-scales creepiness, this movie's fairly by-the- numbers for most of its runtime. But it's in the last thirty minutes or so that things finally heat up. The case gets cracked, the assassin makes his attempt, there's a hostage standoff in and around the Bonaventure hotel (nice to see it like this in a movie) and Eastwood - who up until this point was best at scowling and slamming phones - actually becomes a sympathetic character.I don't know if I want to sit through it again, but all that back-end action is enough to leave me (almost) satisfied.6/10

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