Rene Russo Movie:

		List Price: $28.95		Label: Sony Pictures Salesrank: 10919 Released: July 1, 2008
		Our Price: $14.82
		Used Price: $16.48
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
A gripping, gut-wrenching thriller that delivers suspense in almost unbearable doses, In the Line of Fire showcases Clint Eastwood at his finest. In a performance that won universal acclaim, Eastwood stars as Frank Horrigan, a veteran Secret Service agent haunted by his failure to protect John F. Kennedy from assassination. Thirty years later, he gets a chance to redeem himself when a brilliant psychopath threatens to kill the current president and take Horrigan with him. Taunting him by phone and tantalizing him with clues, the assassin (John Malkovich) lures Horrigan into an electrifying battle of wits and will that only one man can survive. Co-starring Rene Russo as Horrigan's risk-taking Field Chief, In the Line of Fire is a high-wire balancing act of searing suspense, explosive action and surprising romance.

Description of In the Line of Fire (+ BD Live) [Blu-ray]:
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

In the Line of Fire (+ BD Live) [Blu-ray] Reviews:
A Must Have For Any Eastwood Fan
2008-11-23 - A Must Have For Any Eastwood Fan
Great extras with commentary from Rene Russo, John Malkovich, and Clint of course and interesting footage of real Secret Service agants

First class thriller
2008-11-19 - John Malkovich is convincingly creepy and vicious in his role as an assassin turned maniac who wants to kill the president. Next to him, Clint Eastwood is a secret service man who failed to protect JFK. Their demons drive this excellent film, which is convincing and very involving.

It's an excellent movie and first class entertainment.

Movie: 4/5 Picture Quality: 3.25~4.25/5 Sound Quality: 4/5 Extras: 2.25/5
2008-10-05 - Version: U.S.A / Region Free
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
MPEG-4 AVC BD-50
Running time: 2:08:36
Movie size: 35,30 GB
Disc size: 39,52 GB
Total bit rate: 36.61 Mbps
Average Video bit rate : 24.95 Mbps

Audio Formats

* English 1435Kbps (48kHz/16-bit) / French / Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround
* Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround

Subtitles/Captions

English / English SDH / Bahasa / Chinese (Mandarin)
Chinese (Simplified) / Korean / Dutch / French
Portuguese (Brazilian) / Spanish (Latin American)

# Audio Commentary
# The Ultimate Sacrifice (SD, 22 minutes)
# Behind the Scenes with the Secret Service (SD, 20 minutes)
# Catching Counterfeiters (SD, 5 minutes)
# How'd They Do That (SD, 5 minutes)
# Deleted Scenes (SD, 5 minutes)

Malkovich at his best!
2008-09-23 - Though the first billing of this show was Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich was the real star deservedly earning himself the Best Supporting Actor nomination. No offence to Mr Landau's impeccable performance in Ed Wood but I bet the Oscars are going to do the same to Malkovich some time when he's a senior too. It's your usual run-after-the-bad-guy thriller but Malkovich's evil portrayal of the screwed up assassin maniac will keep you watching, even if you know he's going to die in the end (typically Hollywood!). He's a bad guy you love to hate and though he's supposed to be the evil one, you can't help but like him simply coz he's just so evil, you know like Alan Rickman in Robin Hood or Gary Oldman in Dracula. Brilliant movie for both guys and gals to watch together.

Good, but not great, thriller than will suffice if you can't find anything better...
2008-08-27 - 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 clichéd 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 cliché) 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.