'In the Line of Duty: The FBI Murders' is a made for tv movie (from a series) that came two years after the real deal. It gets a lot of the names, details right but also gets many wrong, fictionalized for dramatization. Overall it's a good piece - shootout if you know the case already - but you're ultimately waiting for this showdown to occur as it does lag a little bit at times.
Ex-military men, friends Platt (David Soul) & Matix (Michael Gross) are in the midst of taking down armored cars, banks and killing random people in the fall of 1985 in Miami. FBI Agents Jerry Dove (Bruce Greenwood), Ben Grogan (Ronny Cox), Gordon McNeill (Doug Sheehan) must put a stop to it. As the violence, robberies escalate it's random luck that brings these two sides of the law together for a brutal finale.
Small details like Dove being portrayed as a rookie newbie when that wasn't the case. Then there's silly stuff like the duo shooting up a bank that is over the top. Though it's really the padding bound that got old. Too much time spent on fictional conversations and much providing little to no insight. It reminded me of another infamous piece of true crime - the North Hollywood shootout - and the tv movie made about it '44 Minutes' except here they have much more time to kill.
You get known names in Gross, Cox & Greenwood but Richard Jenkins has an early role as a Miami homicide detective looking further into the murder of Matix's first wife (factual). Acting is decent, the whole thing is shot professionally and the ending is at least exciting about the fatal mistakes made that day. Even if it gets details wrong - key among them there was no fully auto rifle involved.
'In the Line of Duty: The FBI Murders' is serviceable but routine in almost every aspect. If you want to see this event done justice in a more condensed, accurate representation, I recommend you seek out a show called 'The FBI Files'. Search for episode 13 of Season 2 called 'Firefight'. It gives a more true account of the lead up to that fateful day without the fluff.
Ex-military men, friends Platt (David Soul) & Matix (Michael Gross) are in the midst of taking down armored cars, banks and killing random people in the fall of 1985 in Miami. FBI Agents Jerry Dove (Bruce Greenwood), Ben Grogan (Ronny Cox), Gordon McNeill (Doug Sheehan) must put a stop to it. As the violence, robberies escalate it's random luck that brings these two sides of the law together for a brutal finale.
Small details like Dove being portrayed as a rookie newbie when that wasn't the case. Then there's silly stuff like the duo shooting up a bank that is over the top. Though it's really the padding bound that got old. Too much time spent on fictional conversations and much providing little to no insight. It reminded me of another infamous piece of true crime - the North Hollywood shootout - and the tv movie made about it '44 Minutes' except here they have much more time to kill.
You get known names in Gross, Cox & Greenwood but Richard Jenkins has an early role as a Miami homicide detective looking further into the murder of Matix's first wife (factual). Acting is decent, the whole thing is shot professionally and the ending is at least exciting about the fatal mistakes made that day. Even if it gets details wrong - key among them there was no fully auto rifle involved.
'In the Line of Duty: The FBI Murders' is serviceable but routine in almost every aspect. If you want to see this event done justice in a more condensed, accurate representation, I recommend you seek out a show called 'The FBI Files'. Search for episode 13 of Season 2 called 'Firefight'. It gives a more true account of the lead up to that fateful day without the fluff.