Diagonaldi Very well executed

ThiefHott Too much of everything

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

bobilene Just saw this film and It had my attention from beginning to end. Richard Dreyfuss's performance of Alexander Haig is a masterpiece. A fine portrayal of Nancy Reagan also. The turmoil and power plays as depicted makes one really wonder if in fact contingencies are ever truly practiced. At times this film in a strange way is funny.The scene where Nancy Reagan is trying get her critically injured husband to sign a bill to show the country he's not incapacitated could cause a few unintended nervous laughs but propping him up for the hospital bed photos made for a very sad scene. The hunt for the "briefcase man" caused a chuckle when he was finally found in a toilet stall. Not ending this particular piece of chaos, the presidents wallet containing the all important key couldn't be found for a long period of time. If the director was trying to create a sense of complete turmoil he certainly succeeded. This has to be one of the best made for TV movies I've ever seen. I recommend it highly.

msecour It is clear that the low score average indicates that far too many votes were not on the film but on Reagan himself. This is an excellent film and a keeper in my library.I remember this day and this incident vividly. Who could forget the obviously shaken Al Haig telling the country that he was "in control" in the White House while Vice-President Bush was still in the air. This is the story behind the story: the chaos and panic that can set in when a President is shot. There is a theme in this real-life incident that was touched upon in television's "The West Wing" when "President Bartlett" was shot: when your first priority is to get medical assistance for an injured President, there can be oversights in procedure. And there were oversights when Reagan was shot.Richard Crenna does a wonderful job as Reagan, far superior to James Brolin's wooden caricature in "The Reagans." Richard Dreyfuss as Al Haig was brilliant. There is poignancy in the anxiety of the surgeon who "didn't even vote for the guy" and has to be reassured that he should treat Reagan like any other senior citizen in similar condition.The rest of the cast was top notch as well. I really enjoyed this film, but then I love history and I love stories that tell us what really happened. I wonder if I will live long enough to find out what really happened the day JFK was shot.

Peter Hayes The president of the USA is shot after a dinner speech in Washington and this throws the whole office of government in to chaos and confusion. Despite being based on a mix of history, dramatisation and speculation about an event that most non cave-dwellers know all about, credit the cast and crew for making a cracking little drama out of it. Really fascinating stuff and enough is framed on enough indisputable events for us to believe what goes on. The only fly-in-the-ointment is that the American/Russian military situation is played up far more than was really justified. Also interesting that despite its length, it never gets to grip with gunman Hinckley and why Reagan acted like he did on the day. Indeed he seemed to want to deny that he had been shot and indeed he seemed confused as to what had happened. Maybe evidence that mentally the man was slipping already?The gun used was made in West Germany and although Hinckley used dumb-dumb bullets (as accurately depicted) what we are not told is that the reason they didn't "explode on impact" was due to having no mussel velocity on the gun. Is this a state secret?Equally the surgeons in Washington are experts in dealing with shot gun wounds, would they really have not been able to trace a bullet by using a tube through the entrance wound? Is this not standard practise? Did they really have to head scratch before coming up with that?The last question is why this movie has such a low IMDB rating: Are Americans embarrassed about Reagan and want to forget about his presidency? It held my attention well enough and I thought that it had enough going for it to be considered above average, rather than below average as scored here.

BigTimeMovieFan I'll get to the movie in a minute. First, someone wanted "proof" about Clinton's comments at Georgetown, where he claimed that the USA "deserved" the 9-11 attacks. Well, here's what Clinton said:"In the first Crusade, when the Christian soldiers took Jerusalem, they first burned a synagogue with 300 Jews in it and proceeded to kill every woman and child who was a Muslim on the Temple Mount. I can tell you that story is still being told today in the Middle East and we are still paying for it."WE'RE still paying for it? Whaddya mean "we", paleface? The Marines didn't storm the Temple Mount. But in truth, Clinton never really came out and flatly said that we "deserved" 9-11. Like all his statements during his presidency, he IMPLIED that we deserved 9-11. Just point out "fact" A, B, C, and maybe D, and let the listener deduce that they must add up to conclusion X. When in truth, most of Clinton's "Facts" added up to guacamole.But that's beside the point. We're here to talk movies, not politics. Unfortunately, when Oliver "Captain Conspiracy" Stone does a movie, you can't escape his warped politics. It was only a matter of time before he focused his paranoia and bitterness on the Reagan Era, and what better time than when Stone's dreams almost came true, on the day Reagan nearly bought the farm. Unable to find any nefarious plots or schemes in Hinckley's assassination attempt, he invents one with Al Haig. From a simple misunderstanding of the chain of Constitutional authority, Haig is transformed from a public servant who really should have brushed up on his remedial civics into a raving megalomaniac. You almost expect Haig to rub his hands together like Montgomery Burns and tell Cap Weinberger to "Release the Hounds." Stone even recruits the smarmiest person in Hollywood to play our former Secretary of State, Richard Dreyfuss. A guy you love to hate on sight.Overall, the movie is OK. Average, hovering on below average. Don't bother renting or buying. Try to catch it on cable. 4 out of 10.