First Daughter

Whoa what a turkey this made for TV yarn is! Horrible acting chiefly by Mariel Hemingway who is completely unconvincing as a secret service agent. It's so bad the viewer can basically figure out what is going to happen scene to scene. If the films "Guarding Tess" "In The Line of Fire" "Deliverance" and "Meatballs" were to be spliced together this would be the result. A couple of good spots with the whitewater rafting and that's about it.

(Some Spoilers) A tit for tat war between the US Government and a militia group called the "American Freedom Fighters" lead by their combat and political supreme commander Michael Smith, David Wheeler, is the central story in the made for TV movie "First Daughter".

After an ATF raid at the American freedom Fighters headquarters in Michigan the "Freedom Fighters" struck back at a Berverly Hills fund raising dinner for Presdent Jonathan Hayes, Gregory Harrison, that resulted in the deaths of a dozen freedom fighters and secret service agents. During the fire fight secret service agent Alex McGeregor ,Mariel Hemingway,saved the president's life by pushing him out of the presidential limousine after it was hit by an armor-piercing anti-tank rocket that almost tore it in half.

Called unprofessional for not following orders by her boss Daily, Alan Dale, Alex faces dismissal from the secret service, Daily's a by-the-book fanatic who had his brain stuck up his butt for so long that he was unable to use any God-given common sense that might enter it, even if the President of the United States life was at stake.

Despite Daily's objection President Hayes assigns Agent McGeregor to look after his bratty and 16 year-old daughter Jess, Monica Keena,on a field trip with her friends in the isolated Colorado Rockies. Which also happens to be where the members of the militia the "American freedom Fighters" are hanging out in. Right after the shoot-out in Beverly Hills the ATF tracked down the Freedom Fighters in rural Minnasota. After another bloody shootout the ATF captured it's leader Michael Smith. The Freedom fighters seeing Jess and her friends alone in the woods see their golden opportunity to have their leader freed from prison, with Jess held as hostage and facing death if he's not.

Pretty good thriller with Mariel Hemingway very physical in her role as agent Alex McGregor who slugs it out with the "Freedom Fighters" as well as her off-the-wall and by-the-book boss Daily and the man in charge of the camping troop that included Jess. Agent Grant Coleman, ,Dough Savant, after getting good and drunk got his wrist almost broken after he tried to get too close and friendly with Alex.

Grant later saved Alex's life when she stepped on a trip-wire, set by the Freedom Fighters,that had her change her very negative feelings about him. The Freedom Fighters Troy Dirk & Troy's younger brother Eric, Dominic Purcell Diamond Dallas Page & Chris Sadrinna, capture Jess after wiping out all the secret service agents and a number of the campers and demand an exchange of her for their leader Michael Smith.

Exciting ending with Alex saving Jess' life and then being chased by Troy in a deadly and dangerous rubber raft ride with Troy getting some sense knocked into his head by Daily. In the end Daily finally realized that Alex was right all along in her actions that saved the president life. Like she was in saving the life of his daughter Jess.

For once, a TV movie with Aussies pretending to be Americans, instead of the more common reverse. Americans trying to sound like Aussies always sound lame.

But for once WE were the lame ones! Yay!

As an Aussie, I found this movie great, just for the accents. The plot was not bad for a made-for-TV, and the acting was OK. But the best bit was listening to the "American" characters whose accents would slip from Yank to Oz and back to Yank in the same sentence... especially one of the President's Generals, played by the dad from "Hey Dad!" (one of the funniest shows in Oz TV history)

I thought this was going to be quite uneventful and boring but it turned out to be fairly good for a TV movie, and the acting wasn't bad except for the Jess's love interest. One gripe I have, and this is probably only because i'm from Australia, once I noticed that it was filmed here I couldn't get over the fact that it did not look anything like Colorado, where it was supposedly set. Unfortunately there's a distinct lack of gum trees in Colorado and another distinct lack of towering snow capped mountains in Australia as well

This movie is not The Fugitive or Air Force One but it's a pretty good movie and I liked the script. If you have the opportunity to watch it, don't miss it. The plot is very interesting and both, Mariel Hemingway and Doug Savant, are convincing in their roles. Sometimes movies have a high rating and they are not what you're looking for, other times you watch movies with a low rating and get a nice surprise.