The Package

A decent thriller with a fairly convoluted plot. This far removed from the Cold War, it's hard to remember what a threat the Soviet Union was, the incredible evil which she served as vanguard. This film was fairly leftish, seeing accommodation with the USSR as the ultimate good, and confrontation as the ultimate bad. (Sort of a hangover from the demonstrably dumb Nuclear Freeze Movement of the mid '80's) Must have been embarrassing three years later. Tommy Lee Jones and Dennis Franz were totally adequate here. Pam Grier seemed a lot more professional, and a lot prettier, than in the blaxploitation stuff I remember her from. And Joanna Cassidy was great. She played her role intense and low-key at the same time. And what can you say about Gene Hackman. Amazing, the career he's had, looking like that. He is the consummate professional actor, and of course, he had to be. I've never seen him in ANY role that he didn't pull off with seeming effortlessness. (Although I will say, that seeing him in the car scenes seemed to almost be a teensy bit of a self-parody) But some of the plot were a bit big. This one is worth checking out on cable, or a Netflix rental.