75 reviews
Sales Rank: 7634

Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Special Edition, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), Portuguese (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 127
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5 x 0.6

MPN: 043396523173
ISBN: 0767848780
UPC: 043396523173
EAN: 9780767848787
ASIN: B000055Y0Y

Theatrical Release Date: July 9, 1993
Release Date: February 27, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: ARTWORK SLIGHTLY DAMAGED

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com essential video
This smart, tautly directed thriller from Wolfgang Petersen is about the cat-and-mouse games between a Secret Service agent named Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) and the brilliant, psychopathic assassin (John Malkovich) who's itching to get the President in his cross hairs. The back-story--Horrigan is haunted by his inability to prevent John Kennedy's assassination (Eastwood is computer-generated into archival footage)--is more than a little hokey, but the plotting itself is smartly, even ingeniously, constructed. Petersen manages a viselike grip on the tension and Eastwood even gets to deliver an ever-more-timely lecture on the diminished nature of the office of President. Eastwood's as gruff and as infuriating to the by-the-book Powers That Be as ever, and Malkovich oozes delightful menace. Renee Russo capably costars as a colleague with whom Horrigan gets friendly. --David Kronke

Product Description
Haunted by his failure to protect President Kennedy, a secret service agent is now tormented by a psychopath threatening the current president.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 2-AUG-2005
Media Type: DVD

Customer Reviews: Read 70 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Good, but not great, thriller than will suffice if you can't find anything better... August 27, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I won't deny that parts of this film work, very well at that, but in the end `In the Line of Fire' comes off rather generic, without much differentiating it from the masses of similar films shoveled out to us on a regular basis. The acting is decent at best, at time even horrid, and the scripting (which is really the films saving grace) tends to fall into cliched territory more often than not. Sure, it is exciting and in parts is delivers just what we're looking for, but to be honest there are many other films that hit their mark much greater than this one.

The film pits Secret Service Agent Frank Horrigan against the evil Mitch Leary in a game of cat and smarter cat as Leary taunts Horrigan with his plans to take out the President of the United States. Horrigan is haunted by memories of his days with President Kennedy and blames himself for Kennedy's death, so Leary plays off of these fears in order to drive Horrigan to the brink of insanity, causing him to lose the respect and trust of the men and women around him.

Is Horrigan willing to take a bullet for the President?

The film gradually builds to the dramatic conclusion that actually ruins the film for me. I actually enjoyed the vocal toying of Leary to Horrigan, but when the two finally come face to face the film feels as if it gets derailed. I think this is largely due to the fact that Malkovich starts to overact (drastically) and his menacing mannerisms come off cheesy and overdone. I usually like him, but this was a messy performance. Until this scene he does a decent job of delivering the underlying menace in his characters eyes, but here he just goes out there and the result is less than impressive (seriously, Oscar nomination?).

The acting is decent, like I said. Clint is effective for the most part but his gruff demeanor tends to take away from the emotional pain burrowing beneath his surface. I don't see a reason for Rene Russo's character to exist. She was the worst part of the script (total cliche) and her performance is far less than becoming. Dylan McDermott has a nice part in the beginning; too bad he was used to little.

In the end `In the Line of Fire' is not a `bad' film, but it is not a great one either. It will suffice if you want a decent thriller than entertains for the most part, but it is not very original, the character development is mediocre and the acting is sub par. In other words; you can do much better than this so you might as well look elsewhere.

5 out of 5 stars

In The Line Of Fire August 8, 2008
This is a fun movie that has stood up to the test of time. Great chemistry between Eastwood and Russo and it is an intelligent thriller. It is a very nice blu ray transfer.

4 out of 5 stars

Eastwood & Malkovich engage in cat and mouse July 2, 2008
Clint Eastwood came out of a creative slump in the '90s when he won Oscars for "The Unforgiven" and followed it up with this intriguing thriller directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Clint plays a veteran Secret Service agent who latches on to a plot involving the assasination of the President by discovering the identity of the assasin (John Malkovich). Malkovich is in game form here and he meshes well with Eastwood in their cat and mouse exchanges (some really great dialogue, rare in movies today, is employed here). Eastwood, while not a great actor, is in fine form here and the scene between him & Rene Russo in the Presidential suite with him reminscing about that fateful day in '63 is Clint at his best, acting-wise. Malkovich, of course, walked off with an Oscar nod for his role as an disenchanted government assasin and the supporting roles are filled nicely by Dylan McDermott as Clint's ill-fated partner, John Mahoney as a good friend, Gary Cole as a by the book agent and Fred Dalton Thompson as the President's press secretary. So if you're an Eastwood fan and love thrillers, do check this one out (I may purchase this on blu-ray as well).

5 out of 5 stars

"All we have is the game. I'm on offence, you're on defence." February 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Warner Bros.' favourite son's first film outside the studio since the mid-seventies (also the first scored by Morricone in even longer) resulted in one of the best thrillers of the Nineties. The premise is simple, offering Eastwood's ageing secret service agent, who failed to save JFK, the chance for redemption by stopping Malkovich's assassin, who latches on to his guilt in an engrossing cat-and-mouse game. The idea of the criminal and his pursuer forging a bond has been done many times before, but seldom as well as here.

What really makes it work is the strength of the characterisation, giving the audience a stake in the protagonists that adds to the tension. As a result, Eastwood and Malkovich's confrontations (filmed simultaneously rather than separately to give an edge to the performances) are as electrifying as the edge-of-seat action sequences. Even the use of CGi is subtle and well integrated into the story rather than drawing constantly attention to themselves.

Self-deprecating, self-doubting, the kinder, gentler Eastwood on show here gives his most likeable performance to date, while the beautifully underplayed and surprisingly moving scene where he describes the events of that fateful day in Dallas is one of the finest moments in his career. The erratic John Malkovich is more than a match for him, contributing his best screen work to date, with a good supporting cast also on strong form, while Wolfgang Petersen's direction, Maguire's script and John Bailey's outstanding photography all make strong impressions.

The special edition does offer some good special features and a good widescreen transfer.

5 out of 5 stars

Action October 30, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

A Clint Eastwood story of what out Secret Service goes through nad what can happen to our president.