Patriot Games [Blu-ray] (1992) - $7.99 @ Amazon.com

Patriot Games [Blu-ray] (1992) - $7.99 @ Amazon.com [amazon.com]

Actors: Harrison Ford, Sean Bean, Anne Archer, Patrick Bergin, Thora Birch
Directors: Phillip Noyce
Writers: Donald Stewart, Tom Clancy, W. Peter Iliff
Producers: Charles H. Maguire, Lis Kern, Mace Neufeld, Robert Rehme
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English
Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Region: Region A/1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number of discs: 1
Rated: R (Restricted)
Studio: Paramount
DVD Release Date: July 29, 2008
Run Time: 117 minutes
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars (99 customer reviews)

Phillip Noyce's film, adapted from one of Tom Clancy's jillion-selling suspense novels, is a much more effective thriller than it has any right to be. The screenwriters, W. Peter Iliff and Donald Stewart, have eliminated much of the novel's hot air without entirely knocking the wind out of the material; the script tones down Clancy's right-wing ideology and gives the story some straightforward action-movie narrative drive. The plot, which pits Irish terrorists against an Annapolis history professor and sometime C.I.A. analyst named Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford), is ridiculous, boys'-adventure stuff, but the filmmakers almost put it across. Noyce handles the action sequences beautifully: they're lucid and exciting, and their construction has a kind of formal elegance that's oddly satisfying. (He's less successful with the scenes of the Ryan family's domestic bliss, which are meant to establish Jack's credentials as a champion of traditional values.) Ford brings a welcome trace of ambivalence to his character's heroics-a sense that Ryan isn't altogether proud of the lethal efficiency he displays when he's drawn into combat. Sean Bean, Richard Harris, and (especially) James Fox do nice work in supporting roles. This is an expert, entertaining genre picture. Noyce and his team serve Clancy's crude material well-too well, probably. Also with Anne Archer (who's awful), Thora Birch, James Earl Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, and Patrick Bergin. Cinematography by Donald McAlpine. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

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