The jumping in the path of the bullet in slow motion while shouting No to save the life of someone who needs saving was probably quite poignant at one point in film history, now it has gone from cliche to self parody.
The last major film to use it was The bodyguard where Kev costnor jumps in the path of the bullet to save the life of Whitney Houston who is about to be executed at her Oscar acceptance speech.
That film, along with Waterworld, are classic examples of a film that started with a good idea that had nowhere to go and went on going nowhere for three hours. It's bad that Costner made these films but insists on playing the lead himself, with his usual one dimensional character with no personality.
There is an equally ridiculous scene where he is tracking the killer at night in the woods so closes his eyes before taking the shot. And misses. If he had closed his eyes and used his super trained secret service bodyguard hearing to hit the killer it would have been cool. As it was all you end up thinking was of course you missed, you had your eyes shut, you wanker.
Anyway, there is the awful bit where it's revealed that the day Reagan got shot, Kev had a day off to go to his mothers funeral. You can see Whitney and Pa Walton wincing as they deliver the lines that set up this ridiculous plot device.
So we are supposed to now think Kev is carrying some deep guilt which is why he resigned from the service to take a far higher paying job in private bodyguard work. Which is his motivation for making sure Whitney doesn't get killed. As opposed to doing the job because he's getting paid to do it. Oh and he has some confusion because he fucked her one night after showing her how sharp his sword is. Which makes him some kind of samurai apparently.
Anyway, as it's his mate who's been hired to kill Whitney, as ex secret service guy who says he is a bodyguard but is actually an assassin. The fact that Whitney's sister paid for the hit makes it her fault, but Kev wants to shoulder the guilt.
Anyway, having failed to locate the killer until the last possible moment he can't just take him down, he has to do the jump in the way of the Bullet in slow mo and let someone else actually take down the killer.
The killer him self is not particularly good at planning things as he has the chance to kill her up close and personal earlier in the film. And his whole plan relies on her wining the award. What would have happened if the award has gone to another actress like Meryl Streep. Considering we have just sat through three hours which showed us what a shit actress Whitney is, it's kind of a bad plot to hang it all on her winning an Oscar.
Anyway, we get to see Costner get shot.
Pity that didn't happen at the end of Waterworld.
Ay I yi I yi will always love Hugh.
Hugh Grant, presumably.
