In the Line of Fire (1993) - Clint and co-stars on fire in one of the decade's finest thrillers

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Star Clint Eastwood runs alongside a motorcade on a security detail on this poster for Wolfgang Petersen's In the Line of Fire

Frank was serving in the Secret Service during JFK's assassination. He is not about to see a repeat, and so he is 100 % dedicated to the hunt for a new, very competent maniac, who wants to murder the current US President!

 

In the Line of Fire is written by Jeff Maguire (Gridiron Gang (2006)) and directed by German-born American master filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen (One or the Other/Einer von uns Beiden (1982)), whose 7th feature it was. 

It is a perfect piece of thriller entertainment with Clint Eastwood (Hereafter (2010)) in top shape as the old-timer protagonist, who doesn't take no bullshit. The dialog creates sparks, and Eastwood's romance with Rene Russo (Nightcrawler (2014)) here is both elegant and sexy.

John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich (1999)) is eerie. Ennio Morricone's (The Hateful Eight (2015)) music is subdued and effective. In the Line of Fire leaves you breathless with its sophisticated, realistic thrills.

 

Related posts:

 

Wolfgang Petersen: 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Poseidon (2006) - Petersen's disastrous disaster flick

Top 10: Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

The Boat/Das Boot (1981) - Petersen's awe-inspiring WWII epic 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 40 mil. $

Box office: 187.3 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.68 times the cost)

[In the Line of Fire premiered 8 July (California) and runs 128 minutes. Eastwood was paid 7 mil. $ for his performance; Malkovich received 1 mil. $. Shooting took place from October 1992 - January 1993 in Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, Colorado, Michigan and in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #3, behind holdover hits The Firm and Jurassic Park, to a 15.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 5 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#2-#2-#3-#5), grossing 102.3 mil. $ (54.6 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 3 Oscars, winning none. It lost Best Supporting Actor (Malkovich) to Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive, Editing to Schindler's List and Original Screenplay to Jane Campion for The Piano. It was also nominated for 3 BAFTAs and a Golden Globe, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, in line with this one. Petersen returned with Outbreak (1995). Eastwood returned in A Perfect World (1993). In the Line of Fire is certified fresh at 96 % with a 7.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of In the Line of Fire?

Poseidon (2006) - Petersen's disastrous disaster flick

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+ Career Killer of the Year: Wolfgang Petersen + Costliest Flop of the Year: 87.36 mil. $ range

 

An upside-down cruise ship underwater makes up this disaster-teasing poster for Wolfgang Petersen's Poseidon

 

The giant cruise ship the Poseidon gets hit on new year's night by a 'rogue wave', which turns it upside down. Chaos ensues inside, as a group of survivors fight their way to the surface!

 

Poseidon is written by Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend (2007)), adapting The Poseidon Adventure (1969) by Paul Gallico (Miracle in the Wilderness (1975)), and co-produced and directed by German-born American master filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen (Ich Werde Dich Töten, Wolf (1971)). The novel has previously been adapted as The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979).

Really handsome visual effects, especially in the beginning of the film and around the impact of the freak wave, keeps Poseidon above water for a while as a more good-looking, appropriately silly update of the well-known, silly, tiring 1970s movie. We are introduced to plentiful characters, but the encounters become very superficial one and all, and more than once outright laughable in their corniness. Popstar Fergie (Nine (2009)), the black and the latino characters all die relatively quickly, and so the film lives up to the old Hollywood race-profile cliché of letting the white characters outlive other races.

Despite controlled length the film develops sort of like the original Poseidon movie with many long, thrill-less scenes with wet stars, flames and screaming. Petersen fails to elevate this shipwreck.

 

Related posts:

 

Wolfgang Petersen: 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Top 10: Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

The Boat/Das Boot (1981) - Petersen's awe-inspiring WWII epic 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 160 mil. $

Box office: 181.6 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.13 times its cost)

[Poseidon was released May 10 (Philippines, Thailand) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place from June - October 2005 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #2, behind Mission: Impossible III, to a 22.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#4-#5), grossing 60.6 mil. $ (33.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were South Korea with 14 mil. $ (7.7 %) and Japan with 9.9 mil. $ (5.5 %). The film was nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar, lost to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. The film additionally made in excess of 27.1 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Petersen returned with Vier Gegen die Bank (2016). Kurt Russell (Vanilla Sky (2001)) returned in Death Proof (2007). Poseidon is rotten at 33 % with a 4.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Poseidon?

Top 10: Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

1. Ben-Hur (1959) - William Wyler

 

 

2. The Leopard/Il Gattopardo/Le Guépard (1963) - Luchino Visconti  

 

3. Andrei Rublev/Andrey Rublev/Андрей Рублёв (1966) - Andrei Tarkovsky

 

 

4. Das Boot (1981) - Wolfgang Petersen  

5. Gone with the Wind (1939) - Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood

 

 

6. Farewell My Concubine/霸王別姬/Bàwáng Bié Jī (1993) - Chen Kaige

 

7. The Godfather (1972) - Francis Ford Coppola 

8. Apocalypse Now (1979) - Francis Ford Coppola

 

9. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) - David Lean  

10. Greed (1924) - Erich von Strohiem

 

Chosen out of 62 reviewed titles labeled 'epic' or 'great epic'

 

Previous Top 10 lists:

Best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adapted movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date        
Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date         
Best debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date     
Best Danish movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best Disney movies reviewed by Film Excess to date     
Best documentaries reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Best dramas reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Best dramedies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Top 10: Best drug-themed movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

What do you think of the list?
Which epic movies would make your personal Top 10?

The Boat/Das Boot (1981) - Petersen's awe-inspiring WWII epic

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The formidable German poster for Wolfgang Petersen's The Boat, using a newspaper-like graphic that seems to set the high-seas drama of the film in poignant relief. The tagline means, 'A voyage to the end of sanity'

In 1942 World War II is in full swing, and German u-boat U-96 heads out to fight in the Battle of the Atlantic.

 

The Boat is written and directed by German master filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen (Ich Werde Dich Töten, Wolf (1971)), whose 4th feature it is. It is an adaptation of the same-titled 1973 autobiographical novel by Lothar-Günther Buchheim (Die Festung (1995)). The original title translates to, 'the boat'.

The Boat is a really suspenseful, West German U-boat WWII epic from the now retired, German filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen (In the Line of Fire (1993)), who specialized in grand tales of men facing incredible elements or enemies. He also directed films like The NeverEnding Story (1984), Outbreak (1995), Air Force One (1997), The Perfect Storm (2000), Troy (2004) and Poseidon (2006).
The Boat is genuine, claustrophobic submarine terror. There are a number of versions available, including a mini-series version and an 'Original Uncut Version' of nearly 300 (!) minutes, but this review is based on the most commonly seen 150 minute version. The Boat is and was at its inception a giant movie, the most expensive German production ever since Fritz Lang's sci-fi masterpiece, Metropolis (1927). It is a spectacle to behold, and cannot and should not be removed from this part of its attraction.
For a suspense film, it is impressive that The Boat 'only' really peaks twice within its 2½ hours, - and still remains 100 % unnerving. This is perhaps due to its ambitious and formidable shoot, which was chronological and ran for a year (!), keeping the cast living almost as real submariners for that period.
The film is impressive and educative for anyone interested in knowing how a German U-boat functioned during WWII. The history is already known, so to speak, when it comes to the German side Nazi depiction of the war, (it's a misguided tragedy in other words), SPOILER and this is one of the rare war epics, where you will follow what for all intents and purposes seem like 'heroes' for a long playing time, - and still not weep a tear, when they are all blown to bits in the end. (At least I didn't.)
One thing that annoyed me was the fact that the large boat crew was made sympathetic in such a degree that it only contained one real Nazi member. I wonder how we would have seen and experienced The Boat, had the soldiers in fact been Nazis. Reading about the point online I gather that it is unclear at best, if naval soldiers were less Nazified than the rest of the German army and people were at the time depicted, and so this critique seem to stand and be justified.
Still, The Boat is one of the great war films of the 20th century, and perhaps one of the greatest German films period. Especially for the war and/or historically interested, this is a must watch.

 

Related post:

 

Wolfgang Petersen: Top 10: Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Approximately 18.5 mil. $
Box office: 84.9 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.58 times its cost)

[The Boat was released 17 September (West Germany) and runs 149 minutes - with longer versions also available. The majority of the budget was reportedly spent on constructing the u-boats. Shooting took place in France and Germany from 1979-81, with most of the filming completed in one year, in which the actors were strictly kept out of sunlight to make them pale. The film was afforded the widest release to its day in West Germany, where it reportedly grossed 5.1 mil. $ within its first 2 weeks of release. It made 10.9 mil. $ (12.8 % of the total gross) in North America, most from the original German, subtitled version, although an English dub version was also released. The film was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Cinematography (Jost Vacano (Spetters (1980))) to Billy Williams and Ronnie Taylor for Gandhi, Director to Richard Attenborough for Gandhi, Sound Effects Editing to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Editing to Gandhi, Adapted Screenplay to Costa-Gavras and Donald E. Stewart for Missing and Sound also to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. It was also nominated for a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and won a National Board of Review award, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. The Boat is currently voted in as #79 on IMDb's user-generated Top 250, sitting between Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Petersen returned with The NeverEnding Story (1984). Jürgen Prochnow (Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)) returned in War and Peace/Krieg und Frieden (1982). The Boat is certified fresh at 98 % with a 9.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Boat?