This was the last film directed by George P. Cosmatos, a Greek born in Italy, who directed numerous Hollywood action movies and thrillers over the course of 24 years, including several with Greek settings. This one is set entirely in Washington, D.C., and it is a cracking conspiracy thriller about traitors inside the White House. The hero (who spends most of his time on the run from an assassin hired by the conspirators) is played by Charlie Sheen. Linda Hamilton plays a Washington political journalist with whom he is involved on and off, and they become co-fugitives. The dominant presence in this film, however, is that of Donald Sutherland, who acts circles round everyone else, as a security chief. Theodore Bikel has a bit part as a Russian scholar living in the USA who gets killed at the beginning of the story because he has discovered the traitors. Ben Gazzarra plays a character who stands around tables at the White House looking important and smug, but I did not understand until I looked at the credits on IMDb that he was meant to be the Vice President. The President is played by Sam Waterson, but he too is just a supporting character in the story. Gore Vidal has a fleeting bit part as a Congressman. The film contains an excess of action and not enough story. But it is very tense and 'thrilling' as a thriller should be, so it works within its genre. Charlie Sheen is very convincing as a young Special Assistant to the President who is constantly on the run because he has discovered the traitors who wish to assassinate the President. The assassin who keeps trying to kill him is played by Stephen Lang, who is absolutely terrifying, though why he wears a long white coat down to his ankles, thereby attracting a lot of attention to himself, is a mystery. (Aren't assassins supposed to be inconspicuous?) And how does he stow all of those guns under that flimsy coat? And how does he not get stopped by the police when he is shooting all those innocent bystanders in the streets like that? Oh, well, it's only a movie.
