Anthony's Film Review - Patriot Games (1992)

Despite a well-known actor and thriller author, the movie is just OK...

The 1992 thriller film Patriot Games stars Harrison Ford, a veteran actor, and is based on a novel by Tom Clancy, a bestselling author. I imagine that the movie could attract three types of audience members: fans of Harrison Ford's movies, fans of Tom Clancy's books, and fans of action thriller movies whether or not they are fans of Ford or Clancy. I went into this film as someone who is mostly part of the third group. I enjoy the genre of action thriller films, I do like movies that Harrison Ford has been in, and I haven't read anything by Tom Clancy. I wasn't sure what to expect and could not guess how good it would be.

Now that I've seen it, all I can say is that Patriot Games is just an OK movie. It feels standard all the way through. Like any thriller, there are slow scenes that carry the story and fast-paced action scenes that deliver jolts of excitement. However, the pacing of the slow scenes, for me, feels a little slower than I would like, and the action scenes, while not bad, tended to end a little too soon. The result is a movie that could be a pretty good action thriller if done differently, but is instead merely a decent action thriller. It's better than a bad movie at least.

The plot of the movie is one that is simple and fairly easy to summarize. Harrison Ford plays intelligence analyst Jack Ryan. He is on vacation in the United Kingdom with his wife and daughter. But one day, while in the streets of London, members of the Irish Republican Army carry out an assassination, and Ryan just happens to be there to intervene. While he survives the mayhem, neither he nor his family is safe. One of the attackers, a man named Sean Miller, played by Sean Bean, vows to get revenge on Ryan, even if it means hunting down his family first. And he gets that chance after a daring escape from captivity, just as Ryan rejoins the CIA in hopes of catching Miller first.

There's also not much to say about the characters in this movie. They mostly feel like cardboard characters: one good guy, one bad guy, the good guy's family members threatened by the bad guy, and a couple of supporting roles. This is not the kind of movie where you would get to know a character up close, see how he thinks and feels. There's none of that. The movie is an all-plot no-character action flick.

So that's pretty much it. Patriot Games is a pretty standard action thriller, as well as an average Harrison Ford flick. If you are a huge fan of Harrison Ford and/or Tom Clancy, this might be for you. If you're in the mood for an action thriller and want something spectacular, you can look elsewhere. But if you have nothing else to see, this one is decent.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Patriot Games, visit the Internet Movie Database.