These are some of the slowest and least exciting sequences I’ve seen in any action film.
Although he’s primarily known for roles in the 1960s and 1970s, Charles Bronson had a fairly prolific career in B-movie action fare in the 1980s and early 1990s. Aside from four(!) sequels to the 1974 vigilante flick, Death Wish, he appeared in movies like Assassination, which is typical of the films that were released by Cannon Films in the 1980s.
Bronson plays Jay Killian, an aging Secret Service agent who has just returned from a leave of absence. He returns to work just before the inauguration of a new President. Killian’s boss informs him that he won’t be assigned to the new Commander-in-Chief but rather the incoming First Lady, Lara Craig (Jill Ireland.) And, he warns, she’s got a reputation for not following rules.
After an incident during the inaugural parade, Killian suspects someone is trying to kill Mrs. Craig. When his instincts prove correct, Killian and Craig undertake a cross-country trip that makes little sense other than to provide different backdrops for action sequences.
Bronson and Ireland were a real-life couple and their characters trade insults throughout the entire film. It got to the point where I wasn’t sure if this was originally conceived as a comedy or not. In fact, the film never seems to settle on a direction. It’s loaded with comedic banter — especially from Killian’s partner/girlfriend, Charlie (Jan Gan Boyd) — but the script still insists on being a straight-faced action flick.
Director Peter Hunt, who helmed On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and edited several other Bond films, doesn’t seem to recall how to handle action scenes in this outing. For example, one chase scene features several shots of a pick-up truck driver where it’s clearly visible that the vehicle isn’t moving. Someone is simply shaking the truck back and forth. On several other occasions, the stuntmen’s faces are clearly visible. And, all gaffes aside, these are some of the slowest and least exciting sequences I’ve seen in any action film.
This was the last on-screen pairing of Bronson and Ireland. Aside from that, there’s very little about Assassination that’s worth mentioning or recommending. Both deserved better.
1.5 out of 5.0 stars
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