Clear and Present Danger

Its the last installment of all the Jack Ryan Tom Clancy films that I said that I would finish watching... a long time ago. The funny part is I did them in probably the funniest order ever imagined.

This is the order I watched and did the reviews for these movies.
Patriot Games
The Hunt For Red October
The Sum of All Fears
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

I went from second movie, to first movie, to fourth movie, to fifth movie, and now to third movie. If that isn't a weird order of doing things, I don't know what is.

Clear and Present Danger was another product of the 90s spy movies based on Tom Clancy novels that were good... ish...

I swear that these Tom Clancy movies are solely made to make the most realistic and frankly boring representation of the CIA ever conceived.

Clear and Present Danger is a return to Harrison Ford as the Tom Clancy character Jack Ryan as he is now promoted to Deputy Director of Intelligence for the CIA.

Clear and Present Danger mainly takes a hard look at the United State's War On Drugs as the CIA wages a secret war in Colombia against drug cartels.

As Ryan is put into his new position, the Deputy Director Operations (played by Henry Czerny) and the National Security Advisor (played by Harris Yulin) for the President (played by Donald Moffat),  send a secret task force into Colombia to fight the Cartel, led by John Clark (played by Willem Defoe). At the same time, Ryan speaks in front of Congress saying that there is no troops or military involvement in Colombia.

In Colombia, the cartels are run by Ernesto Escobedo (played by Miguel Sandoval) and his second in command, Felix Cortez (played by Joaquim de Almeida). There's an obvious rivalry between Cortz and Escobedo and sooner rather than later, this starts to play into the drug war happening between the United States and the drug cartels.

Honestly, the first hour or so of this movie is very dry. I'm not saying its bad, its just dry. The United States government freezes the assets of the leader of the Cartel, Ryan does some intelligence stuff, and Willem Defoe and his merry men get ready and go fight some Cartel members.

I'll give the movie credit, the movie has a lot more action in it than Patriot Games and The Hunt For Red October combined, which doesn't exactly make it better, but keeps the pace up a little bit.

Its the last half where things pick up. Ryan investigates and realizes that the President and the Director of Operations have been waging the secret war. Furthermore, they strike a deal with Cortez to give up the military team in return for the murder of the current leader and a secret alliance between the cartel and the US government.

Its mostly when Ryan goes against the government that things get really good. I always like a good running against authority storyline and this one actually gets pretty good. Its when Harrison Ford can get out of his quiet monotone voice of awesomeness and start growling at people.

I like that Jack Ryan isn't your confident or incredibly graceful hero, but at the same time, he's an incredibly moral hero. All incarnations of Jack Ryan have been one who sees the world in a black and white sense. There is no grey area, everything is either good, or bad. This is a very apparent theme in this film as the War on Drugs and how its dealt with, in reality and in this movie, rides the line of the morally grey.

And that's where this movie was actually really good. Whether it was Defoe and his men fighting Cartel members, or the US government making secret deals believing it to be the way to continue fighting, the movie was really good.

Speaking of secret deals, Joaquim de Almeida plays a somewhat interesting and conniving bad guy. I don't know if he's better than Sean Bean was in Patriot Games, but I remember Joaquim de Almeida in 24 and I really enjoyed him.

That's another thing about this show, that isn't so much about the film but more about 24, they seem to have taken a lot of people from this show and reused them in almost the same characters they are from this show.

Cortez is your typical Cuban drug lord and I think most of his intrigue comes form his shady dealings with the government. Its that shady dealings and back stabbing that I wish was a little more developed. It could have been better, that's all.

Unfortunately, he's not exactly the most developed villain. I like him enough, but he is for sure not that greatest.

The real action comes from the scenes in Colombia, mainly when John Clark is getting his team together and executing the missions against the Cartels. I really enjoyed that stuff.

Willem Defoe obviously brings it.

In a way, he's the one being played while the suits in DC and Langley move him around like a pawn in a chess game.

I really liked when him and Ryan finally team up. I like the relationship between Harrison Ford and Willem Defoe. And Willem Defoe actually surprised me as a CIA operative like John Clark. I guess i didn't really think he was very good for the role when I realized that he was John Clark but it turned out pretty good and of course Willem Defoe was a lot of fun, as per usual. He's the end of the CIA that you might expect out of a CIA movie and to be honest, I think that a movie on John Clark perhaps needs to happen because in many ways, he's a little bit more interesting that Jack Ryan.

I don't mean to bad mouth Harrison Ford in any way. Its just the dryness of the first half of this movie that makes the paperwork and daily office work kind of boring to watch.

I know Tom Clancy's books are a little bit more dry and its focused a little more on the investigation rather than the action part and for what its worth, Harrison Ford is still by far the best Jack Ryan.

I seem to be kind of shitting on this movie but in reality, its probably my favorite of all the Jack Ryan films, or at least its just behind Patriot Games. I think I jump back and forth between this movie, Patriot Games, and Shadow Recruit as my favorite with one of the Harrison Ford films as the first. Its hard to decide.

Honestly, when Ryan is on the ground doing things you would see in other CIA movies, it gets really good.

Overall, Clear and Present Danger has a lot of good things about it, its just a dry 90's action flick. Its a very intelligent movie as well, not quite falling victim to the stereotypical action flicks of the 80's and 90's and actually showing some reality to it. Its basically the precursor to I think was perfected in movies like the Bourne films.

I think the 90s in many ways was a precursor to great espionage films that came in the 2000s. That doesn't mean they're bad, they were just starting something new that hadn't really been done before and I guess for that, I have to give the movie credit.

The movie is very similar to Patriot Games in that the pacing is not that great but the story, characters, and action, where it comes in, is really good.

In short, I liked Clear and Present Danger, not love, like. But what do you think? Comment and Discuss below! Also Follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 where you can get updates on the blog and watch me try and be funny.

I'll leave you with this. I realized that Harrison Ford fights the same way in every movie. Here's a video showing all the fight scenes Harrison Ford do in every movie he's been in and tell me what you think. Enjoy!