The Package (1989)

I love this movie so much

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Terrible movie with so many plot holes. And Gene Hackman plays a self righteous sergeant in the army. They are planning an assassination of one of the leaders. The plan includes high officials in many police departments and in the military. Hackman is on the pursuit of the truth and what happened. Of course he has an ex - wife higher up on the military chain than him so she gets some movement. Her friend, Ruth, helping her, gets killed and they are upset. Everyone gets killed except Hackman. They recruit a "buddy" of his on the Chicago P.D.... They now go on the last offensive to stop and find out what is going on. So many issues. The cop, helping Hackman, gets shot and tells Hackman to go, because he is wanted by the police and army. Does he go? No! He stays with the injured officer and then promptly gets "arrested" and is handcuffed. Is he shot in the head and then dumped out in some alley? No, they take him where, to the safe house where the plan is going down. Doo they inject him with something lethal or to put him to sleep, no, they let one guy go down to "set up" Hackman's death. But, alas, he is able to beat the guy up, all from sitting on the ground mind you, and escape. At the end all the players are in the right place to be intercepted by Hackman and Franz (The officer helping Hackman). When you watch this movie you will do what we were doing, or saying. Like, why don't they, no way and all they have to do is!!! By the way, Hackman's wife, in the movie, is a colonel and oh, isn't missed at her job (post) in the office. The Secretary and people she does "business" with are not inquiring. Lastly, Joanna Cassidy, who is Hackman,s ex wife and is helping him was distraught over her friend, as I mentioned earlier, Ruth being killed, but, they now are happy and she isn't mentioned AGAIN and they are happy, like if didn't even happen. Again, suspend your brains, which is hard to do, because even a child won't understand why they do these things. One thing, I heard Hackman turned down the role in the "Fugitive" and thus, was given to Tommy Lee Jones. Do they, Hackman mainly , read the script before they do the movie??? Because if they do, well, something is wrong in their brain . Thanks for reading. God Bless. James

Johnny Gallagher (Gene Hackman) is a sergeant guarding the peace negotiation in Germany with his men. They get attacked by a well organized group. Col. Glen Whitacre (John Heard) blames him for the failure as well as the failed hostage rescue in Iran. He suspects a group is aiming to assassin the President. Gallagher is ordered to take a prisoner (the package) disorderly sergeant Walter Henke (Tommy Lee Jones) back to the States. Henke escapes from the men's room at the airport with the help of several accomplices. Gallagher discovers that the man isn't actually Walter Henke. He enlists his ex-wife Eileen (Joanna Cassidy)'s help. Henke's wife is killed by an assassin and Gallagher is detained. Eileen discovers the package's true identity is Thomas Boyette. There is a conspiracy from both militaries to stop the treaty. Gallagher and Eileen enlists his old friend Chicago Police Lieutenant Milan Delich (Dennis Franz)'s help.The basic scheme doesn't make too much sense. It seems to be way too complicated and it would be simpler to leave Gallagher out of it. If they want Henke as the patsy, then they need to kill Gallagher at the airport or use one of their own men to transport Boyette. It's obvious the scheme is fashioned after the premise of Hackman and TLJ is hatched by the writer. By letting Gallagher go at the airport, he's obviously going to look and find out that the prisoner isn't actually Henke. The story needs a few more passes to iron out these problems. If one turns off the brain, this thriller goes on auto pilot and does a good job with that. Hackman is always capable in these kinds of tense thrillers. As a historical oddity, the movie was released at around the same time that the people were circumventing the Berlin Wall signaling the end of the Cold War. The movie is overtaken by history just as it was released.

I ran into The Package on TV the other night and was pleasantly entertained. I'm quite surprised not to have heard about this movie since it has a star-studded cast and a renowned director. Maybe the reason for being relatively unknown is the film's genre, the political thriller. Anyways, The Package is a solid film with a good pace and a story that probably was more relevant back in the day but still enjoyable today. As for the actors, Gene Hackman stands out of course, he's always been good at portraying military characters. It's amazing to see his ability to bring intensity on the screen, especially when it comes to face-to-face confrontations. His scenes with John Heard are good examples of this and he will bring this to another level with Denzel Washington in Crimson Tide. It was also interesting to see Tommy Lee Jones in a bad guy role earlier in his career. For fans of Hackman and Jones The Package is a must see, for others it's a safe bet for worthy entertainment.

Maybe it was his role as Gary Gilmore in The Exectioner's Song seven years previous that got him noticed and cast in this movie, but the career of Tommy Lee Jones, roommate of Al Gore at Harvard, was never the same afterwards. He got the crazy role in Under Siege and the the super role in The Fugutive and the rest is history.His part here was small, but significant. Another small part went to Pam Grier, who managed to depart fairly early in the film. Oh, well, I always like seeing her.The main actors were Gene Hackman (Unforgiven, The french Connection), Joanna Cassidy (Who Framed Roger Rabbit), and Dennis Franz (NYPD Blue). They stumbled into an assignation plot, and gave us a good thriller.I would be remiss if I didn't mention Marco St. John. Probably not a name many are familiar with, but he has had a lot of small roles, and I used to know him when I lived in Mississippi many years ago. Just wanted to throw that in there.