Patriot Games

I think Jack Ryan was the Jason Bourne of the 90s. And I realized halfway through this movie that this movie is actually a sequel to The Hunt For Red October. My review of that movie will be done in the near future when I have time to watch it but for now, I'll take Patriot Games on its own merits and see it as a standalone movie as opposed to a sequel.

I love Harrison Ford.

From Star Wars, to Indiana Jones, to The Fugitive, to Cowboys & Aliens, the guy is just the classiest actor in Hollywood. And the wonderful thing is, he's the most humble guy ever. He's an introvert and not really a flashy actor, and yet he's one of America's favorites. Unfortunately, I didn't really grow up in his prime. Everything I have experienced of Ford's movies were from my father showing them to me.

But as the only member of the Star Wars cast that maintained a successful career after the original series was over, Ford is just an all around badass. And that brings us to his stint as the famous Tom Clancy character, Jack Ryan.

Patriot Games follows the former CIA agent as he's taking his family on a trip to Great Britain. He's on a lecture tour as he is a professor of history and consults for various intelligence agencies. On the way to meet up with his family, he sees a group of masked men attacking a vehicle containing a part of the royal family. Jack intervenes and kills a few of them and leads the arrest of their leader, Sean Miller (played by Sean Bean)

These events lead Ryan's family to be targeted by rogue members of the IRA and Jack has to return to the CIA in order to stop another attack on the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland all while making sure his family is safe from terrorists.

Its really funny how dated this movie is. I mean Ford was 50 when he did this movie but it was that time in Ford's life when he looked younger. Also, you have James Earl Jones. What has he been in lately?

But also, the main threat is the IRA. Its very evident of the 90s in that that was the terrorist threat. The Soviet Union had just dissolved and while some action spy movies theorized a revitalization of the Soviet Union, the counter terror genre was a little bit lacking.

So how is Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan?

I think a charming thing about this representation of Jack Ryan, and all of them from the 90s is that he's not much of an action hero. While I would still consider him the Jason Bourne of the 90s, thats not really what you think it is. You have to remember that Tom Clancy was writing counter-terror thrillers before 9/11 and while so was Robert Ludlum, Jason Bourne didn't become a movie thing until 2002. Also, if you think about it, after Bourne out did The Sum of All Fears in 2002, Ryan fell out of popularity. Clearly, Jack Ryan was the spy figurehead of the 90s... and 2013 I guess, but we'll get to that in a different review.

But again, Ford does a great job as Jack Ryan. He's smart, he's great with the action he's given, and if you can pull one thing from all of Harrison Ford's action movies, its that you don't mess with his family.

His family is played by Anne Archer, playing his wife, and Thora Birch playing his daughter. They're good, I think they play well enough to their purpose in the movie as the call to action of the movie. They really are only there to give Jack Ryan a reason to go hunt these terrorists because one of them has a personal vendetta against him. That's not to say they're bad, they're just there for a purpose and they serve it. Anne Archer plays a good Catherine Ryan and Thora Birch actually didn't annoy the hell out of me. The good thing is, I buy that they're a family. There isn't a lot of conflict within the family, Catherine says a little bit about how she doesn't want Ryan to go back to the CIA and Jack blows off something his daughter wanted to go to once, but overall, they get along and they're more cohesive so that its more of a call for Jack to destroy the people who wanted him and his family dead.

And that leads me to the villain of the movie. Sean Bean plays Sean Miller, a member of a rogue IRA faction bent on killing the Secretary of State of Northern Ireland. In the beginning in their first kidnapping attempt, Ryan kills Miller's brother and therefore Miller has a personal vendetta against Jack Ryan. So much as he goes all the way to Maryland and shoots at a car with Ryan's family in it as their driving home from school. Pretty hardcore.

The problem is, as much as I like Sean Bean and thought that he did a good job considering, Sean Miller is probably the dumbest terrorist ever to be on the big screen. When he's chasing down Catherine Ryan, she crashes into a road divide and Sean just says, "Eh Good Enough" and assumes there dead. Furthermore, he goes after Ryan's family and not Ryan himself, why? I don't know. I mean you'd think Sean would want to kill the man who killed his brother personally. But no, he goes after his family for whatever reason. Furthermore, think about it. Jack Ryan is a CIA analyst. They make it very clear he's not a field agent. So when Sean and the other bad guys attack his house where the Secretary of State of Northern Ireland also is, they can't take down him and Samuel Jackson, the only people who really kill some of these terrorists and complete their objective? No because Sean Miller is a dumb villain.

Oh yeah, Samuel Jackson is in this movie.

And then there's the gaping problem with this movie and what kind of brings it down the most, is the pacing.

 This movie is mainly focused on Jack Ryan and his family. While they do a really good job developing Jack Ryan as a character and what brings him do the things he does in the movie. In the end its all about his family.

Unfortunately, this lends itself to a very slow and pretty uneventful movie. The movie itself is a little under two hours and while it is a good story if you wade through it, its not the most engaging movie.

The main draw I think the movie has is the performance of Harrison Ford and the story, regardless of how slow it is executed. While Sean Bean's character is dumb as rocks, he does a great performance. While the IRA as a terror threat is really outdated, it is an interesting look at the fears and villains of the 90s when it comes to spy movies.

The movie is not phenomenal. I would say its a product of its time but I think there are better movies out there to be called classics, like The Fugitive. But all that aside, I had a good time watching this movie. Once you get past the slow parts, it really is a decent spy movie though maybe not the kind we're used to today.

It also did give us this scene.

Tits!

So that's my review of Patriot Games. Have you seen Patriot Games? What did you think? Do you agree with what I've said about it? Comment and Discuss below.

So I'll leave you with this. Harrison Ford was on Jimmy Kimmel Live and since there is going to be a new Star Wars movie, obviously they were curious about Star Wars, but Ford would not answer any questions. Hilarity ensues. Enjoy!