Patriot Games *** (1992, Harrison Ford, Sean Bean, Anne Archer, Thora Birch, James Fox, Patrick Bergin) – Classic Movie Review 727

Director Phillip Noyce’s 1992 blockbuster has its exciting moments but overall it is a surprisingly plodding, clunky and lame action thriller based on Tom Clancy’s bestseller. Harrison Ford is dependable and sympathetic but unexpectedly dull as CIA analyst-agent Jack Ryan, previously played so well by Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October in 1990.

The now former CIA analyst Ryan is enjoying a welcome vacation in London with his wife Cathy (Anne Archer) and daughter Sally (Thora Birch). He goes to meet them at Buckingham Palace when the peace is interrupted by an explosion and he gets mixed up in an IRA attack on a British aristocrat, Lord Holmes (James Fox), who is close to the Royal Family.

Ryan becomes a target of the IRA group, led by Sean Miller (played by Sean Bean) and Kevin O’Donnell (Patrick Bergin), who try to kill him at the Naval Academy. Ryan learns that they’re also going after his family so he rushes to find them and they survive. Jack decides to re-join the CIA, but then the IRA killers pursue him to America.

Alas a two-hour movie drags between its action highlights and director Noyce, who shows little of the command of pace, tension and atmosphere he managed so well in his brilliant 1988 Aussie thriller Dead Calm.

W Peter Iliff and Donald Stewart’s struggling screenplay is full of clunky dialogue, while the plot uncomfortably tries to construct an entertainment out of the Irish troubles. With all the emphasis on the far-fetched plot and the improbable action, the writers haven’t really managed to carve out any interesting, fully fleshed characters, they’re all just cyphers, hero, villain, women to be rescued etc.

Nor do they provide any all-important incidental background atmosphere and detail, or show any real sympathy, knowledge or feel for London and the British way of life. It’s all too touristy, aimed at foreigners who fancy a virtual vacation to the UK.

There are some competently written and staged action climaxes, and they are quite exciting even though they are clichéd. Here Ford shows his prowess as an action star. But the finale is disappointingly hollow and unconvincing. And so Patriot Games finally ends up several notches down from The Hunt for Red October as a thrilling, edge-of-seat entertainment.

Also in the cast are Richard Harris, James Earl Jones, Samuel L Jackson, David Threlfall and Alun Armstrong.

The novel of Patriot Games preceded The Hunt for Red October, so its earlier story features a younger Jack Ryan, but the film is not a prequel but a sequel since Ford is older than Baldwin.

The Jack Ryan franchise trundles sporadically on, with sequels Clear and Present Danger in 1994 (again with Ford)…

… and The Sum of All Fears in 2002 (with Ben Affleck)…

… and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit in 2014.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 727 derekwinnert.com