A Line of Fire: Review

This movie doesn’t ease you in. It opens with women in bikinis getting shot, which is jarring enough but once it’s over, the movie never finds that energy again.

After that opening, things slowed way down. I bumped the playback speed to 1.25x because there wasn’t much action, and the cast—from the protagonist to the villains—just wasn’t compelling enough to hold my attention at normal speed.

One scene that made no sense to me: Jamie kissing “Cash” when they literally just met. They’d only shared a short drive together, and suddenly they’re locking lips in the middle of danger. Zero buildup, zero chemistry. It felt lazy and unearned.

What initially caught my attention about the movie was seeing Cuba Gooding Jr. listed in the cast. The last time I remember hearing about him, he was dealing with sexual misconduct charges, and I hadn’t seen him in anything notable since. It was nice to see him star in a movie again, or at least I thought he was, because he was heavily featured in the trailer and on the Netflix thumbnail for the movie.

There was one line I actually appreciated. The protagonist says he hasn’t felt like a patriot lately because he’s no longer out in the field stopping bad guys and is instead working a 9-to-5 and being a family man. That line humbles the “social media patriots” pretty much most of the people on X, blaming the Left for everything.

Even when the action came quicker because of the speedup, I didn’t return to the normal speed because I didn’t feel the need to. Remember the phrase “straight to DVD” used as shade for movies that weren’t theater quality? That’s what I think of this movie when Netflix was in its early stages and streamed mostly low budget movies.

By the end, everything about the movie fell flat: the acting, the script, the pacing. And despite being featured on the cover, Cuba Gooding Jr’s role was surprisingly small. I take back my earlier optimism about his comeback—this movie only reinforces that he’s still struggling to regain relevance.

The only reason I continued watching it was because I was sitting on my porch smoking a cigar. Cigars have a way of stretching your patience during otherwise impatient moments. 

If you’re looking for an action movie to watch during this holiday season, this ain’t worth your time, even if you’re a federal employee and have a five day weekend.