Complacent political-paranoia thriller in the footprints of The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, et al. George P. Cosmatos, the director of Tombstone, Rambo, et al., shows glimmers of competence. The action is every bit as fast-moving as it is confusing. And the Wellesian deep-focus shots, too occasional to add up to a stylistic hommage, but occasional enough to be no accident (the theater marquee trumpeting the title Touch of Evil provides irrefutable confirmation), stir up more excitement than any and all of the hot pursuits on the way to an attempted Presidential assassination. Stephen Lang, who never utters a word of dialogue, as the cold-blooded but blithely foolhardy killer, is the most tangible reminder -- him, and his ankle-length duster -- of Tombstone, wherein he was the boozy and yellow-bellied Ike Clanton. But the James Bondian weapon of destruction on which we see him puttering throughout the movie turns out to be more funny than terrifying: a remote-control toy helicopter spitting live ammo at the Secret Servicemen surrounding Mr. President. With Charlie Sheen, Linda Hamilton, Donald Sutherland, Ben Gazzara, Sam Waterston. (1997) — Duncan Shepherd
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