The Package (1989)
Well, if you can get past the first half hour you're past the worst of this up and down thriller. It's never brilliant, but the scenes in the U.S. (Chicago and Washington) are more convincing than the East Berlin stuff, which has only some nice location shooting to recommend it. Later on there are car chases that are fun, and more nice location shooting, and even some very convincingly boring political speeches (brief). At its best, there is tension and surprise, but not often enough even of that.
Many of the minor actors simply can't hold up the very weak script. The exception? Gene Hackman, his usual brilliant, subtle, convincing self. It's very much a one man show, but a tough act even for him with the forced plot, the forced turn of events, the hyped up events, and the plain old bad lines now and then. Just to be clear this is high stakes stuff, there are Commies, neo-Nazis, corrupt cops, corrupt servicemen, an intrigue against the president, protests against disarmament (a timely issue 1989) and lots of old and new friendships tested and questionable. It's a lot for any movie, and too much for a clumsily written one, which this is.
There is Tommi Lee Jones to be reckoned with, also convincing, but with a small sporadic part. The music by James Newton Howard is pushy at first (to the point of annoying) but settles in to a professional gait that really works. The filming is quite good if not exceptional, and edited pretty well. Some of you might like all of this a lot, but overall there's just that issue of corny and exaggerated lines which will sometimes make you cringe. And the painfully cliffhanger ending? It's what must happen in this kind of formula movie.
Director Andrew Davis gives a preview, in a way, of that chase and intrigue film he would direct to great success a few years later, "The Fugitive," a better movie in every way. Watch this with that in mind for something to do.
Well, if you can get past the first half hour you're past the worst of this up and down thriller. It's never brilliant, but the scenes in the U.S. (Chicago and Washington) are more convincing than the East Berlin stuff, which has only some nice location shooting to recommend it. Later on there are car chases that are fun, and more nice location shooting, and even some very convincingly boring political speeches (brief). At its best, there is tension and surprise, but not often enough even of that.
Many of the minor actors simply can't hold up the very weak script. The exception? Gene Hackman, his usual brilliant, subtle, convincing self. It's very much a one man show, but a tough act even for him with the forced plot, the forced turn of events, the hyped up events, and the plain old bad lines now and then. Just to be clear this is high stakes stuff, there are Commies, neo-Nazis, corrupt cops, corrupt servicemen, an intrigue against the president, protests against disarmament (a timely issue 1989) and lots of old and new friendships tested and questionable. It's a lot for any movie, and too much for a clumsily written one, which this is.
There is Tommi Lee Jones to be reckoned with, also convincing, but with a small sporadic part. The music by James Newton Howard is pushy at first (to the point of annoying) but settles in to a professional gait that really works. The filming is quite good if not exceptional, and edited pretty well. Some of you might like all of this a lot, but overall there's just that issue of corny and exaggerated lines which will sometimes make you cringe. And the painfully cliffhanger ending? It's what must happen in this kind of formula movie.
Director Andrew Davis gives a preview, in a way, of that chase and intrigue film he would direct to great success a few years later, "The Fugitive," a better movie in every way. Watch this with that in mind for something to do.