IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Martin Onassis One of the biggest slams against this film is that it is supposedly dated in regards to the USSR and Cold War politics, but it takes place more during Perestroika and the end of the Cold War, so it retains a setting in a particular place in time. Perhaps it might be dated to those under 30, who can't appreciate the import of the times, but it, at least, offers a reasonable glimpse into its times.The Package tightly builds a portrait of a shadow force working against an elected government, so in that sense, it is timeless. It's been on constant rotation on the THIS channel, and a third watching showed me how much the writers thoroughly worked out the various threads ahead of time, providing not only a patsy for the assassination attempt, but a method by where he would have been arrested and documented as a white supremacist ahead of time.It's hard to go wrong in a film with Gene Hackman, Tommy Lee Jones, and Dennis Franz, who all implement the characters they're known for.My only real issue is at the end, when the narration implies that a public investigation exposed the conspiracy afterwards in Congress. We all know that isn't what generally happens. If anything, it makes the USA of 1990 look like a more moral country than it is now, probably because it was.It's not the most original conspiracy story I've ever seen, but it's well thought out and executed, with plenty of references to the Kennedy conspiracy/Manchurian Candidate and the principles make it constantly entertaining.

davideo-2 STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Seargent Johnny Gallagher (Gene Hackman) is a gruff, no nonsense army veteran who doesn't follow the rule book and leads his troops in his own distinct style. But when a mission he headed goes disasterously wrong, he finds himself assigned to escort troublesome prisoner Thomas Boyette (Tommy Lee Jones) back from Germany. But when Boyette escapes after an airport altercation, it sets in motion a chain of events, where Gallagher finds himself implicated in a murder and Boyette's true identity and intentions become more terrifying.I've always been an admirer of The Fugitive and, especially, Under Siege, so you can imagine my surprise when I discovered, for the first time, this prior Tommy Lee Jones/Andrew Davis collaboration that doesn't seem to have as much recognition. Although I was interested in seeing it, I didn't expect it to be quite up to the standards of what was to follow from the pair and while it far from falls short of even this expectation, The Package does still come off very much like a build up to something better than something on an equal footing.It opens well, in typical Davis style, and generally carries it's plot in quite a slick and competent fashion, but after a while it really does develop quite a TV movie feel, with a less involving plot and less engaging characters than those other great two films I mentioned, a story that feels slightly too heavy and complicated, while Hackman just phones in another hard faced, craggy army captain role and Jones doesn't have the material to bring his character here to life in the same way he brought out Strannix and Gerard.All that said, though, this is still quite a worthy and well made effort that is slick and polished and carries itself well enough and certainly set in stone what was to follow from Jones and Davis. **

Kieran Green Gene Hackman is seasoned Green Beret sergeant Johnny Gallagher, is escorting a prisoner, Airborne Ranger Tommy Lee Jones back to the US, but he subsequently evades Hackman's custody and escapes. All is not what it seems as the plot thickens when it appears that Jones is an assassin who is out to kill the President and visiting Russian Premier who is negotiating peace talks in Chicago. John Heard is a devious general who is out to thwart the treaty. Hackman is accompanied by 'Blade Runners' Joanna Cassidy who plays his ex-wife, Dennis Franz also assists Hackman in his race against time.Directed by Andrew Davis 'The Fugitive' 'Under Siege' it is a riveting and excellently Suspense filled Conspiracy cover up fans of Gene Hackmans will enjoy this, their are references to 'The French Connection' most notably in the car chase.

Chris During this movie I had some fun to predict what will happen next. If you had watched (or read) many Thrillers with the Cold War as Topic it's quite easy. This movie is like a time travel back to 1980's. The music score was typical 80's as the photography of the action scenes. Not only the photography and the score were solid like all the actors. Gene Hackman was the leading cast next to Tommy Lee Jones, Dennis Franz, Pam Grier and Joanna Cassidy. Gene Hackman is more or the less the same character as he was in many other thrillers. This time he is a good U.S. Sgt. who had some bad luck in his life but is still good enough to fight against all enemies of the U.S. Tommy Lee Jones is playing a villain and he always was great in such Roles. Hopefully he is doing more roles like that again in the future.The suspenseful final wasn't without flaws but overall I enjoyed "The Package". Not the best Cold War Thriller but entertaining enough.