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DVD Patriot Games (Special Edition)
Let's see--he's been Han Solo in three films and Indiana Jones in three more. So why shouldn't Harrison Ford take on a new continuing character in Tom Clancy's CIA analyst Jack Ryan? In this film, directed by Phillip Noyce, Ford picked up the baton when Alec Baldwin, who played Ryan in The Hunt for Red October, opted for a Broadway role instead. In this film, Ryan and his family are on vacation when Ryan saves a member of the British royal family from attack by Irish terrorists. The next thing he knows, the Ryan clan has been targeted by the same terrorists, who invade his Maryland home. The film can't shed all of Clancy's lumbering prose, or his techno-dweeb fascination with spy satellites and the like. But no one is better than Ford at righteous heroism--and Sean Bean makes a suitably snakey villain. --Marshall Fine
Jack Ryan first came to the screen in THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. In that film, Ryan was a CIA analyst who was reluctantly placed in the middle of an intriguing political chess match. The stakes were high as all-out war was pending. Now, Jack's back in PATRIOT GAMES. It's a different film that Red October. Different Pace. Different stakes. Different Ryan.
We pick up years after Red October. Ryan has left the front lines of the CIA and has become an instructor. While his family is operating in London, they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ryan prevents a terrorist attack that is attributed to the IRA. Not one to be easily defeated, the terrorist turns his sites on Ryan and his family. This time it's personal.
Philip Noyce picked up directing duties with this film. He continued the interest in the cool, cutting edge techno-gadgets. A tactical mission attack seen only through a satellite night vision shows a new kind of warfare, and a new way to watch it. But, Noyce's story doesn't have the claustrophobic feel of RED OCTOBER and the overall stakes in the film are so much smaller that it feels like a more standard action film. PATRIOT GAMES puts a lot more on the back of Ryan, as October had Sean Connery's Ramius to carry much of the film.
Harrison Ford took over the role of Ryan from Alec Baldwin and made many changes that worked within the new film. He is now a more seasoned agent and at times an action hero, something Baldwin's character worked so hard to avoid. Ford makes the role his own and is immediately comfortable in the role. His wife is played by Anne Archer and his daughter by a young Thora Birch (AMERICAN BEAUTY, GHOST WORLD.) But, their roles are limited to victims. The wonderful James Earl Jones reprises his role as the Intelligence leader Admiral Greer. But they are haunted by Sean Bean as the angry young man with an extreme issue with revenge. There is even a strange alliance with the leader of the IRA entertainingly presented by Richard Harris. All four of them would return in the next Ryan film, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER.
PATRIOT GAMES is a professional entry in the extremely sturdy Jack Ryan series, recently joined by Ben Affleck's entry in THE SUM OF ALL FEARS. The audio transfer is excellent on the DVD; however, the video transfer has trouble in the darker scenes.
It has it's moments...
This movie has very few things that stand out from other movies of its type. In structure, it has nothing: a man is forced into defeating terrorists to save his family. The man is Harrison Ford playing the same role he does often, the unwilling hero who must negotiate evil to protect his family and ultimately the world. Being that it's a Tom Clancy story, it involves a lot of helicopters.
It's worth watching though for maybe a few subtleties. For one thing, the quicker exposition of the plight of the family and how it isn't really overplayed or over-dramatized. In theory, this film could almost be a little more realistic than the usual snazzy explosion-thriller. Also it has one of those "slam-bang" endings that is actually pretty exciting. Thus, it has just enough stuff in it to keep it interesting and watchable, though it's extremely forgettable and rather uninteresting.
For me the only thing that ended up piqueing my interest is seeing Thora Birch being her usual sarcastic self at such a young age. Whodathought that someone's personality would also go through their acting careers at completely different stages of life?
--PolarisDiB
Harrison Ford Wins Again
Patriot Games is an exciting and deep movie about IRA terrorism in London and Harrison Ford's intervention. The drama is excellent with comparable action. But there is a deeper message in this movie: terrorism is violence, regardless of the cause. A secondary theme is the destructiveness of revenge. I recommend this movie with no reservations.
The third installment in the cinematic incarnation of Tom Clancy's CIA analyst Jack Ryan and the second starring Harrison Ford, this follow-up to Patriot Games is a more complex, rewarding, and bolder film than its predecessor. Ford returns as Ryan, this time embroiled in a failed White House bid to wipe out a Colombian drug cartel and cover up the mess. The script, by Clancy and John Milius (Red Dawn), has an air of true adventure about it as Ryan places himself in harm's way to extract covert soldiers abandoned in a Latin American jungle. There are a couple of remarkable set pieces expertly handled by Patriot Games director Phillip Noyce, especially a shocking scene involving an ambush on Ryan's car in an alley. The supporting cast is superb, including Willem Dafoe... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Harrison Ford - Willem Dafoe Director(s): Phillip Noyce DVD Release Date: Released the 06 May 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Before Harrison Ford assumed the mantle of playing Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan hero in Patriot Games, Alec Baldwin took a swing at the character in this John McTiernan film and hit one to the fence. If less instantly sympathetic than Ford, Baldwin is in some respects more interesting and nuanced as Ryan, and drawing comparisons between both actors' performances can make for some interesting postmovie discussion. That aside, The Hunt for Red October stands alone as a uniquely exciting adventure with a fantastic costar: Sean Connery as a Russian nuclear submarine captain attempting to defect to the West on his ship. Ryan must figure out his true motives for approaching the U.S. McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard) made an exceptionally handsome movie here with action... More Info about this DVD Director(s): John McTiernan DVD Release Date: Released the 06 May 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Do you know anyone who hasn't seen this movie? A box-office smash when released in 1993, this spectacular update of the popular 1960s TV series stars Harrison Ford as a surgeon wrongly accused of the murder of his wife. He escapes from a prison transport bus (in one of the most spectacular stunt-action sequences ever filmed) and embarks on a frantic quest for the true killer's identity, while a tenacious U.S. marshal (Tommy Lee Jones, in an Oscar-winning role) remains hot on his trail. Director Andrew Davis hit the big time with this expert display of polished style and escalating suspense, but it's the antagonistic chemistry between Jones and Ford that keeps this thriller cooking to the very end. In roles that seem custom-fit to their screen personas, the two stars maintain a sharply... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Andrew Davis DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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You know that old dramatic principle of suspension of disbelief? You'll have to rely on it for this box-office smash, but you won't be disappointed. Harrison Ford plays a U.S. president who single-handedly employs his rigid antiterrorism policy when a band of Russian thugs hatch a mid-flight takeover of Air Force One. Gary Oldman, who chews the scenery as the lead terrorist, will shoot a hostage at the slightest provocation. Glenn Close plays the sternly pragmatic vice president who negotiates with Oldman from her Washington seat of power. If you can believe that the aircraft's pressurized cabin can sustain hundreds of rounds of machine-gun fire, you'll buy anything in this entertaining potboiler, especially thanks to Ford's stalwart heroics and some nifty special effects. Director... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Harrison Ford - Gary Oldman Director(s): Wolfgang Petersen DVD Release Date: Released the 26 December 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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It's not easy replacing Harrison Ford as a beloved screen hero, but Ben Affleck brings fresh vitality to The Sum of All Fears, reviving Paramount's Tom Clancy franchise in the role Ford made famous. As CIA agent Jack Ryan, Affleck is a rookie in the covert ranks, unraveling a plot that lures Russian and American superpowers into a nuclear standoff, while a neofascist faction turns most of Baltimore into an atomic wasteland and holds the world in the grip of a terrorist nightmare. Affleck combines sharp intelligence with a new-guy's perspective, while a senior agent (Morgan Freeman) passes the torch of back-channel authority. The result is one of the best Clancy films to date, ably helmed by Phil Alden Robinson (whose comic thriller Sneakers was sorely underrated) with a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Ben Affleck - Morgan Freeman Director(s): Phil Alden Robinson DVD Release Date: Released the 29 October 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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