Assassination (1987) Cannon/Action RT: 88 minutes Rated PG-13 (language, violence, sexual references, thematic elements) Director: Peter R. Hunt Screenplay: Richard Sale Music: Valentine McCallum and Robert O. Ragland Cinematography: Hanania Baer Release date: January 9, 1987 (US) Cast: Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Stephen Elliot, Jan Gan Boyd, Randy Brooks, Erik Stern, James Lemp, Michael Ansara, James Staley, Kathryn Leigh Scott, James Acheson, Billy Hayes, William Prince, Charles Howerton, Chris Alcaide, Jack Gill, Mischa Hausserman, Robert Axelrod. Box Office: $6M (US)
Rating: ** ½
It may not be one of Bronson’s crowning achievements, but Assassination is a reasonably entertaining action movie. It’s unusual that it sometimes plays like a romantic screwball comedy from the 30s and 40s (It Happened One Night, His Girl Friday) with the two main characters exchanging barbs while they travel cross country in an attempt to evade assassins. It’s a screwball comedy with guns, bombs and rocket launchers.
Directed by Peter R. Hunt (Death Hunt), Assassination isn’t a particularly intelligent film. It seems redundant to say that about an action movie starring Charles Bronson, but this one manages to outdumb even the worst of them. The plot is silly enough, but when you finally find out why somebody wants the First Lady dead, you’ll choke on your popcorn.
Bronson plays Jay Killian, a Secret Service agent assigned to guard incoming First Lady Lara Royce Craig (Ireland, Death Wish II). No surprise, she’s a ball-busting b*** who takes an instant dislike to her new bodyguard. She doesn’t want him in her face all the time and gets really POed when he gives her a black eye while protecting her from what might have been an attempt on her life during a motorcade.
As it turns out, somebody is trying to kill Lara and the only one that can protect her is Killian. They hit the road, travelling all over the country, dodging assassins sent by some unknown person. Could her husband the President (who we never see) be the one behind the conspiracy? That’s an easy one. The harder question is how the First Lady thinks she can travel commercially without being recognized. I asked myself that question a few times even though I knew the film would never address it. It really doesn’t matter anyway because logic isn’t the point of a Bronson actioner. Neither is common sense apparently. Assassination is only concerned with bringing on the action, nothing more.
Actually, that’s not entirely 100% accurate. There’s a subplot about Killian’s romantic involvement with a female agent under his command, Charlotte Chong (Boyd, A Chorus Line). Newly divorced, he’s not interested in getting married again. He’s amenable to a relationship even though it goes against Secret Service protocol. There’s also some flirting between Lara and Killian, but he’s too much of a professional to allow anything to happen. He knows when to stay off the grass.
In what has to be the oldest rom-com cliché in the book, the two leads start out hating each other. It soon turns into something resembling a romantic relationship. They bicker and swap insults like an old married couple. If it sounds convincing, it’s only because Bronson and Ireland were an old married couple in real life, almost 20 years as of the film’s release.
In any event, the quasi-romantic stuff in Assassination is mere filler. It fills the time between action scenes. Hunt delivers some genuinely thrilling moments, but don’t go in expecting the usual brutal violence associated with Bronson’s movies. This one carries a PG-13 rating so the violence is toned down considerably. I find this kind of disappointing because when it comes to awesome action stars like Bronson and any of his 80s contemporaries, I want lots of R-rated violence and mayhem. Assassination is more like a movie made to be shown on prime time television, a Movie of the Week starring David Hasselhoff and Markie Post.
The acting in Assassination is more or less what you’d expect. Bronson always gives the same kind of performance, but we already know not to expect a brilliant display of thespian skills from him. Ireland is a terrible actress. My guess is the late actress (she died on cancer in 1990) got work because she was married to Bronson. Boyd isn’t a very good actress either. The movie goes a lot smoother when she’s off-screen. Not once does she deliver a single line of dialogue with even the slightest hint of conviction.
Speaking of the dialogue, Richard Sale’s (The White Buffalo) screenplay contains some real howlers, but the topper has to be when Killian says in response to Chang’s invitation to move in with her: “I don’t want to die from a terminal orgasm.” Then there’s the exchange between Killian and Lara after escaping from an attempted assassin at a Pennsylvania motel:
Lara: “Well, we’ve made it to Pickett’s Charge. 15,000 men died here.”
Killian: “Now it’s 15001.”
You gotta love tough guy BS like that.
I don’t recall ever seeing a plot quite like the one in Assassination. It’s a silly mix of action, conspiracy thriller and rom-com. The identity of the individual behind the plot to kill the First Lady is never in doubt once this person is introduced. What gets me is the very end. After the guilty party meets justice in a very public way (we’re talking witnesses), the White House tries to pass it off as a natural death. WTH? How stupid do the makers think we are? Anybody with half a brain knows there’s no way the White House could possibly cover something like that up. It doesn’t just strain credulity, it breaks it entirely.
It’s strange we never see or meet the President (the one after Reagan, btw) except for his hand while he takes the oath at his inauguration. It would have made things more interesting implying that he might want his wife dead.
There’s plenty of action in Assassination, but the plot is so dumb, it would be easy to dismiss it as one of Bronson’s lesser efforts and move on. For the record, I like Charles Bronson, but you already know that. I also like the supporting cast which includes Stephen Elliott (Beverly Hills Cop) as Killian’s boss, Randy Brooks (Reservoir Dogs) as a fellow agent and Robert Axelrod (Murphy’s Law) as a troublesome journalist. A bit player in several Bronson flicks, Axelrod is always a welcome presence.
It’s not one of Bronson’s best, not by a long shot, but Assassination works if you lower your expectations. It’s ridiculous, but it’s short and it moves fast which I’m sure is by design. It doesn’t give the viewer time to think about what’s going on. That would ruin it. Besides, who wants to think at a Bronson movie? Not me!
