Saturday, November 29, 2014

Assassin (1987)

The President's body guard Jay Killion, known as Killy, is assigned to protect the First Lady, Lara.  But Lara doesn't like having a babysitter, and does everything she can to make Killy's job harder or slip away without him noticing.

Killy says it's too dangerous for the First Lady to drive through the streets in a convertible, but Lara brushes him off because she wants to be accessible to the public.  Guess she forgot about a little thing from 1963 called the Book Depository in Dallas.

When a policy motorcycle breaks through the crowd and enters the parade route, no one is suspicious, which is odd since that's outside protocol and he's pulls in next to the the First Lady's convertible.  Killy assesses the situation, and pushes the first lady onto the floor of the car before there is an explosion on the bike.  Killy is the only one who thinks that it's suspicious that the mystery cops bike exploded, no one can identify the man, and he ran off into the crowd after it happened.  You get the feeling if it weren't for Killy, the entire First Family would already be assassinated by now.

In another example of an oblivious First Lady, she slips away to her vacation home so she can go out on her fathers yacht.  When the Captain decides to refuel prior to picking her up, the boat explodes.  Killy warns her that this is another attempt on her life and she needs to stop ditching him.  First Lady Lara thinks he's being overly dramatic because sometimes boats explode.  I'm not sure what type of exploding boat she's used to seeing, but I've never seen any boat explode, and I live near the ocean.

The film is funny because it's so dated and filled with action cliches.  There's also a ridiculous sexist perspective where the women are treated as if they're dumb dames.  It's hilarious, even though it's horrible.  There's also some uncomfortable moments when you realize that his female Chinese partner is named Charlie Chang, which often sounds like he's calling her Charlie Chan.

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