10 July 2008

A championship football game is underway in front of a sell-out crowd at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. As the action unfolds on the field, a lone gunman, hidden high above the scoreboard, has his sights set on the unsuspecting football fans and is biding his time waiting for the moment when he can open fire on the crowd.

When a TV crew covering the game spots the potential killer via a camera positioned on the Goodyear blimp, LAPD Captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston) and SWAT Sergeant Chris Button (John Cassavetes) are called in to attempt to neutralise the sniper's threat without causing widespread panic by evacuating the stadium and alerting the public. With the clock ticking down to the game's final two-minute warning, the two men find themselves in a tense and desperate race against time to save the lives of countless innocent victims.

Directed by Goodbye Columbus's Larry Peace, the film has a great set-up and a good cast that includes Martin Balsam, Beau Bridges, David Janssen, Jack Klugman, Gena Rowlands and Walter Pidgeon, but is in any good? Opinions differ, with Roger Ebert creeped out by the film but Variety praising its "above-average plotting, acting and direction."

My memory of the film is hazy, so it will be interesting to see it again, something that will be possible when it's released on UK DVD on 1st September 2008 by Nouveaux Pictures at the RRP of £15.99. No news on the aspect ratio yet, but it has been digitally remastered from a restored print and looks like a movie-only release.