An
unambitious but fairly entertaining Secret Service thriller with Michael
Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland as former friends involved in an assassination.
Based on a novel by Gerald
Petievich, this thriller centers around Secret Service agents trying to detect
a traitor in their midst. Michael Douglas’s character is kind of the flip side
of Clint Eastwood’s in In the Line of Fire. Rather than being haunted by
failing to thwart an assassin, he’s a hero for saving Reagan. He’s now assigned
to protect the First Lady (Kim Basinger). Kiefer Sutherland is a friend turned
rival charged with investigating the death of agent, possibly part of an
internal plot against the president. The early part of the movie does an
excellent job of conveying the nature of an agent’s job, wading through a
constant stream of information, only a tiny fraction of which turns out to be
relevant. I expected the plot to turn on this ability to weed out true danger
from false threats, and so was a little disappointed when it evolves into a
lengthy and improbable manhunt. The arch-villain turns out to be as generically
uninteresting as they come. Nonetheless, the players are interesting enough to
make this worth a look if you’re in the mood.
posted 8/24/13
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