Awesome is the word I’d like to start with. FInally a flick for serious thinkers. The rest, please there are other reviews to enjoy. It was cheesing me off to find folk at the theatre being puny & calling it a comedy! Pop corn and canoodling can be done ouside. Give some due to a well made movie. Well then-If you get your high from serious documentaries, twists, the dirty game of real politic &’trust no one" kinda feel, in the form of a movie- then here you are
A year ago agent Barnes(Quaid), one of the best in the US seceret service had taken a bullet for his president. Now spite of nervous seizures, he’s back in the line of fire with buddy agent Taylor(Fox), next to the US president , attending a global summit in Spain to address unity and world terrorism. What happens next is a set of bizzaire horrific incidents: The US president is shot dead and a series of bombs explode through the venue, massacring people and creating mayhem among the city dwellers. Barnes manages to detain a Spanish under cover cop who had lunged at the President.
Amid all the chaos and death, secret, nefarious dramas unfold. These happen 15 minutes before and after the assassination. The story evolves on how the incidents are percieved by the people who got sucked into the vortex of unprecedented situations- 15 minuts before and after the occurance. The story thus takes you back and forth from the eyes of each witness. Agent Barnes goes by his gut instincts to get to the bottom of the consipracy and nab the gunman. The freelancer Lewis(Whttaker) feels he knows enough of the truth and tries to draw attention as he hot persuits those he feels are invloved. It also does not stop him from safe custodying a young girl who gets seperated from her mother after the explosions. Agent Taylor acts smart. The american news team headed by Rex(Weaver) keep rewinding thier films & a lone under cover cop goes further under cover to unravel what he feels is the key to the disaster, and that includes his trecherous girlfirend. People are followed, people are blackmailed, people are conned and misled during the nerve raking set of catastrophies. The story keeps twisting from one mystery to another -one lead to the next. But Old agent Barnes never gives up. Nor does the Spanish cop or Whittaker.
There must be rotten apples in the barrel as Agent Barnes suspects now.
Its is soon understood that the president’s decoy was shot while the big man himself was sitting behind protective walls watching the whole masqurade. The spoof incident was supposed to be used by his security adviors as a chance to come down on terrorism strongly and destroy the alleged countries/hideouts using space weapons. But apparantly they are not the only ones with smart ideas. Somehow security is breached. The truth about the president’s double was known long ago by terrorists. While for the world the US prez is dead, a lone gunman breaks into the President’s stronghold and kidnaps him- the real president. At this point one has to to sit upright and take notice- The kidnapped and drugged Prez is transferred to another group of terrorists who plan to drive away from the chaotic city and put their loot to good use- They have in their hands the man who rules the world .
Agent Barnes, The unlucky Spanish Cop, Whittaker, US president himself , and the other unlucky paws of the bigger game all play their due part at the end, to save the day. On top of that there is
the elemenet of luck and the unforeseen that tilts the table away from the terrorists.
Fantastic story line, gripping and realistic, I would still say that getting through the world’s second best presidential securty is not that easy as they’ve shown here. But There was never a better movie before. Infact I’d call this a documentary as it does not not come with the silly frills of a movie. EAch actor has done a great job. While the movie is not character centric, Dennis Quaid and Whttaker surely stand out with their humane elements on the job. Hats off to Director Pete Travis as well for tight direction, and fabulous screenplay and cinematography. A few questions remain about what was the real role of the Spanish Cop? Good guy under pressure? These are just a couple of loose ends.But its all to hot to look for flaws. Heck n damn them thrice:)
THis is one moive that you watch several times by paying yourself and then it goes into your collection. If we are on the same page, you know what I’m talking about. In my book this is
one of the best movies of 2008. Wow!