L'enlèvement du président

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

...but not as good as it thinks it is. It's an interesting concept, the American president is kidnapped, locked in an armored truck and held for ransom. The script has plot holes you could drive an armored truck through and logical non-sequiturs abound.

The soundtrack is annoying as heck. There's some music mixed in there someplace but it's frequently lost behind a wall of chirpy synthesizer noises.

And the pacing is sluggish. It's like being in grade school and receiving an assignment to write an essay of some arbitrary length, say 500 words, so you just shovel padding words into the essay until you reached the mandated length. That's how the script feels - padded and bloated.

The cast is OK-ish. Hal Holbrook is fine as the presidential hostage but he's not asked to do much more than sit in a truck. It's always a pleasure to see Van Johnson, who starred in some of my favorite childhood movies - Brigadoon and The Pied Piper of Hamlin - and Ava Gardner.

What to say about Shatner that hasn't been written countless times already? I'm not really sure we should call what he does "acting". He just is Shatner just as he is just Kirk and just every other character he's ever portrayed. He's always the same. Like Robert Morley or Jerry Lewis. Unchanging. Constant. The most disconcerting aspect of his participation is most actors sharing a scene with him unconsciously act like him.

There are worse ways to spend a couple of hours but I know there are better ways as well.

At the very least The Kidnapping Of The President should discourage Barack Obama or Mitt Romney against foreign travel. Even in a country like Canada with close cooperation between governments, there's still a turf war over security.

And some security President Hal Holbrook had. A Che Guevara wannabe Miguel Fernandes wires himself with explosives and handcuffs himself to Holbrook while he's visiting Toronto. Great crowd control from the RCMP. He demands one hundred million dollars in diamonds or he and a confederate who lock Holbrook in an armored vehicle will blow it up.

There are a couple of side issues in this film. Fernandes has the sister of a former comrade whom he killed convinced that it was those no good Yankee capitalists that did Cindy Girling's sister. Secondly President Holbrook before leaving for Toronto confronts Vice President Van Johnson about some indiscretions that were never fully explained and wants him off the ticket. Now Johnson is the guy who is making the command decisions from the White House about the ransom money and of course Holbrook's life.

William Shatner is the Secret Service agent in charge and he does one colossal breach of stupidity during the crisis that I'm still reeling over. I can't say what it is, but no Secret Service agent would do it or for that matter any law enforcement person.

The Kidnapping Of The President is a rather mediocre product from Canada and I'd skip it.

This movie looked like it was rushed to release for some reason. Definitely not a well made movie. So unbelievable. The scenes where the President (Holbrook) were downtown and walking among the people were a farce. There would not be a chance for the common folk to be within 30 yards of the President in that situation in real life. If it wasn't for the blood and profanity, this was shot like a TV movie. It could have been decent if it was done differently. Holbrook's (President) talents were never realized in this movie. Shatner's acting is okay. The production values in this movie leave a lot to be desired. Overall, I think most people would be better off not wasting time to watch this affair.