Links: IMDb * Wikipedia * AllMovie * Rotten Tomatoes
Premise: A gimmicky film presenting an assassination attempt on the President of the United States viewed from multiple points of view - each character has an impact on the occurrences of the few hours surrounding the event.
Stars: Dennis Quaid * Forest Whitaker * William Hurt * Matthew Fox * Sigourney Weaver
Story: Dennis Quaid plays a Secret Service agent who is recalled to duty after taking a bullet on duty. His partner, Matthew Fox, is young and has a gung-ho attitude. Forest Whitaker plays an American tourist on the scene. Weaver plays a news producer covering a presentation by the President (Hurt) in Spain.
These four - and others - all have different points of view on the events surrounding an assassination attempt on the President. Eventually it turns out that Fox is a traitor aiding the assassins (some of who are actually blackmailed into performing), and Quaid must capture or kill them all, with the aid of news cameras and Whitaker's information.
Review: The film is gimmicky - it follows the events leading up to the assassination attempt from one point of view and then switches to another point of view leading up to that same time frame. Each segment is presented as "one hour earlier", "two hours earlier" etc. The switches gets old fast, and seriously affect the viewing of the film. Quaid performs as his usual self - solid and dependable but nothing special. Whitaker, Weaver, and Fox do not inspire, and Hurt is disappointing as the President - but the script does not call for inspired acting as it over-relies on the gimmick to move the film. Once the movie stops framing everything in relation to the bombing, it quickly changes to a standard by-the-numbers chase between Quaid and Fox, while the assassins capture the real President and try to kill him.
The film is driven by the gimmick, and then conveniently wraps up all of the plotlines in a jumble towards the end, resolved by circumstance and coincidence. A poorly written, jarring film that doesn't give usually dependable actors anything to work with.
Overall: Bad
No comments:
Post a Comment