PATRIOT GAMES (1992) - Movie Review

Director: Phillip Noyce
Starring: Harrison Ford, Sean Bean, Anne Archer, James Earl Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, Polly Walker, Richard Harris, James Fox
Genre: Action, Thriller
Writer: W. Peter Iliff, Donald E. Stewart
Runtime: 117 min
Rated: R for strong sexuality, and for language and violence
Buy This Movie: Blu-ray (Amazon), 4K Ultra HD (Amazon), DVD (Amazon), Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV

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Synopsis:

Harrison Ford stars as Jack Ryan in this explosive thriller based on Tom Clancy's international best-seller. His days as an intelligence agent behind him, former CIA analyst Jack Ryan has traveled to London to vacation with his wife (Anne Archer, Fatal Attraction) and child (Thora Birch, All I Want For Christmas). Meeting his family outside of Buckingham Palace, Ryan is caught in the middle of a terrorist attack on Lord Holmes (James Fox, The Russian House), a member of the Royal Family. Ryan helps to thwart Holmes' assailants and becomes a local hero. But Ryan's courageous act marks him as a target in the sights of the terrorist (Sean Bean, Stormy Monday) whose brother he killed. Now Ryan must return to action for the most vital assignment of his life: to save his family. Costarring James Earl Jones (The Hunt For Red October).

Review:

Following the success of the Tom Clancy adaptation "The Hunt for Red October", a sequel was developed with Harrison Ford replacing Alec Baldwin as CIA analyst Jack Ryan. "Patriot Games" is based on Clancy's 1987 novel of the same name, and it always struck me as the most unusual in the Ryanverse, perhaps because the stakes are more personal, the scope narrower and the action more subdued than most techno-thrillers.

The use of real-life terrorist groups, politics and global conflicts to drive the premise is a staple of any Clancy novel, and here we have Ryan going against a radical splinter cell of the IRA, but at its core, this is more or less a straightforward thriller driven by a simple revenge plot. Instead of saving the world from a nuclear disaster, or getting involved in some grand conspiracy, Ryan's mission here mostly revolves around protecting his family from a psychopathic terrorist with a vendetta.

It's also the least action-packed of the Clancy movies, although a magnificently staged third act confrontation more than makes up for it. Harrison Ford is great as Ryan, a thinking man's action hero, so much so that he was given another go at the character two years later in "Clear and Present Danger". The rest of the cast is on par, although I can't name any standouts except perhaps the underused Samuel L. Jackson.

While not particularly spectacular or memorable, "Patriot Games" is a crafty and effective thriller with a couple of impressive set pieces and a solid cast. Well worth a watch if you're a Tom Clancy fan, or just looking for some above-average thrills.

SCORE: 7/10