Search - The Package on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Violence, Questionable for Children, Adult Language, Profanity Movie Release: 1989 DVD Release: 01/18/2000 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV,Pan and Scan Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 48 mins Studio: MGM Members Wishing: 1 Genres: Thriller, Political Thriller

The Package, a thriller involving political assassination and intrigue, is an excellent action feature using a familiar theme and providing good performances by the cast. Boyette (Tommy Lee Jones) is a prisoner entrusted to Gallagher (Gene Hackman) for transportation back to the United States. Boyette escapes and Gallagher must find him. In doing so, Gallagher finds himself getting into far more than he had bargained for as he becomes involved in a political assignation plot that he must stop. Both Hackman and Jones are excellent in reprising familiar roles. Hackman is never better than when portraying the decent man in a precarious position, and Jones plays Boyette with the same cunning and intelligence that he brought to The Executioner's Song. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Gene Hackman - Sgt. Johnny Gallagher
Joanna Cassidy - Lt. Col. Eileen Gallagher
Tommy Lee Jones - Thomas Boyette
John Heard - Col. Glen Whitacre
Dennis Franz - Milan Delich

Andrew Davis's The Package was one of the neatest thrillers of the last 20 years, complex, well-paced, unpretentious, and economically put together, with a half-dozen first-rate performances at its core. MGM has thought enough of the movie to issue it as a two-sided disc, containing an enhanced letterboxed 1.85-to-1 image on one side and a standard full-screen image on the other, and an insert with unusually full annotation. That's better treatment than the movie ever got when it was out on laserdisc from Orion (who originally produced it); the letterboxed version loses picture material at the top and bottom of the screen, but frames the action in a more claustrophobic and manner that adds to the inherent tension of the story; either side of this DVD looks better than that laserdisc, and this is also one of the better sounding digital discs of its era. The 32 chapters also demonstrate just how much effort someone put into producing this disc, which is one of the bigger bargains on the market -- the only thing it doesn't have is a narrative track by Andrew Davis, who certainly rates one. The original trailer (presented full-screen) is also available, and there's an optional French langauge track or subtitles, for those who can use them. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide