This is the VIP-Bodyguard genre. It has the stalwarts – Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich. Although to be fair given that this movie was made in 1995, John Malkovich was still starting out and Clint Eastwood was trying out new genres, having given up the American Westerns.
For me the best one in this genre will always be the Michael Douglas starrer – The Sentinel, followed by The Jackal and then probably this one. The problem with this one is half-baked relationships and the lack of empathy that Clint’s character has.
Also it behaves more like a police procedural rather than giving us the thrills that a chase should. Clint Eastwood goes halfway between being Bridges of Madison County and Dirty Harry and thus the resultant Clint is a mongrel with the heart of a tramp and the looks of a lady. His wife leaves him, no issues, he is ok, the president dies on his watch and the best he can do is a sneer, his partner dies saving him and his eyes aren't even wet, and then are his awful efforts at flirting! He tries the “Palat” technique and it falls flat simply because we know the fizz that SRK can give it. The angst and the romance are totally missing here.
A bit of trivia is that the role John Malkovich essayed was originally to be played by Robert De Niro ( What a movie that would have been) and also that President Seibert from The Big Bang Theory plays a two-bit role in this one.
In this genre are also the Gerard Butler starrers, “Olympus has Fallen” and “ London has Fallen”. Those are far better.
So if you want to give this one a miss, do so and catch the others.
Or else, this isn’t going to cost you anything on NetFlix, so watch it if you are a Clint Eastwood fan, we survived him talking to the chair, so I am sure we will survive this too.
P.S: I would love to see a movie/documentary about the Secret Service Agents who survived the Kennedy assassination, if you guys know of any, lemme know.
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