The Kidnapping of the President

The notion that a terrorist could kidnap the President of the United States while he's standing in a crowd shaking hands sure seems ludicrous. And, it's also ludicrous to imagine the Canadian government doing such an awful job protecting the man. You must look past all this in order to enjoy the movie....or at least to not discount it. Additionally, you must also accept that the terrorists could shoot a gas station and make it explode...again and again and only with one shot! And, you must accept that the main terrorist's confederate pulls out the detonator from her pocket and holds it...while a crowd is standing around her...even though she is supposed to stay hidden. And, when an insane man wanders into the middle of this 'situation', nothing is done to stop him until the last possible second. And, a dedicated terrorist changes her mind at the last second. And, finally, you must accept that pretty much everyone in the film, with the exception of the CIA agent (William Shatner), is stupid.

It is a shame, really, as Shatner is very good here and the film has some other excellent actors, such as Hal Holbrook, Van Johnson and Ava Gardner (who does a nice Lady MacBeth impersonation). But the basic premise just doesn't make much sense. For a similar but far more intelligent story, try watching the original "Day of the Jackal". It covers similar ground but does it much more intelligently and believably. Overall, watchable but really, really, REALLY farfetched.

By the way, gas stations do NOT blow up like this. If they did, they'd be blowing up all the time and no one would ever consider driving a gas powered car!

When the government was helping create a film industry here in Canada, it followed this pattern b film with a named actor. This time the name actor is William Shatner, and the b action film is about terrorist grabbing the president. Unbelievable at the time, but after 9/11 James Bond plots become more believable every week. It is entertaining, and I like Shatner in it, I forgotten abit of the ending. Entertaining, but a B film. 5/10

Starring William Shatner as a Secret Service agent, the President is successfully kidnapped and the search for him and the kidnappers is on. A decent film, far better than Vantage Point which had a similar idea behind it, the acting and pacing are decent as is the ending. Worth seeing if it were ever on.

THE KIDNAPPING OF THE PRESIDENT is a familiar but well-handled hostage thriller in which Hal Halbrook plays an American president kidnapped and held for political reasons by South American terrorists. This one starts off with some rather extraordinarily violence and grit for the era which felt to me, as a seasoned fan of Italian cinema, inspired by the hard-hitting cinema of Fulci and his giallo contemporaries; there's certainly no shying away from the violence here. From there we move into more familiar territory as William Shatner's secret service man tries to tackle a complex situation. The level of grit is admirable, the suspense works well and the punctuation of violent moments offsets the tension nicely.

I really wanted to hate this movie. William Shatner has played in some real turkeys, 'Big Bad Mama' being a prime example. However, there was something about this film that I really liked. Maybe it was WS looking all natty and noble in his navy blue suit and trench coat. Or the idea of Van Johnson as the vice president, married to Ava Gardner -- oh, what a casting fiasco that was! Or Hal Holbrook being presidential yet once again. Or the fact that this was a Canadian film actually shot on location in Toronto (starring my favorite guy from north-of-the-border). The story wasn't too bad, the acting wasn't too horrible. And did I mention how cute Shatner looked?