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Patriot Games (1992)

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102 comments in total

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23 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
A Super Thriller, 20 March 2006

Author: ccthemovieman-1 from Lockport, NY, United States

This is an outstanding thriller, a movie I have always enjoyed watching since it came out. Apparently a number of people also did since a few sequels followed featuring the main character ex-CIA analyst "Jack Ryan," played by Harrison Ford.

Sean Bean was excellent as the revenge-obsessed villain, a member of a "splinter group," as its labeled not really an IRA extremist, but one too out-of- control for any group. Ford is the man best able to stop him and the film is very interesting start-to-finish and smart enough not to overdo the violence. Suspenseful is probably the best word to describe the movie as Bean goes after Ford's family.

Anne Archer, as Ford's wife, along with the rest of the cast, actors such as Patrick Bergen, James Earl Jones, James Fox, Richard Harris and a young Thora Birch make this a well- acted movie.

This is simply one of the best thrillers I've ever seen and almost every scene is interesting.

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13 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Terrific!, the best of the Tom Clancy adaptations!, 2 December 2002
Author: Idocamstuf from Greenville, NY

I have wanted to see this film for quite a while now. Ive seen The Hunt For Red October(1990), and Clear and Present Danger(1994), and Patriot Games is much better than them. Patriot Games is a great thinking man's thriller, although its much less difficult to follow than "Clear and Present Danger". It has plenty of suspense and action, and Ford's acting is terrific. I am so surprised that Patriot Games is often considered the worst Clancy film, and "The Hunt For Red October" considered the best, but I think it should be the other way around. Overall a great suspenseful movie. 9 out of 10

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10 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Harrison Ford kicks...., 19 January 1999

Author: Rick Peach (beefsmack@webtv.net) from USA

Harrison Ford kicks some major butt in this film and proves again that he is the leading action star of his generation. Ford's action movie's never really seem silly, they always seem real. Alec Baldwin should have never let the character of Jack Ryan go, because Ford now personifies the super agent. Nice direction from Phillip Noyce and a great score from James Horner make this a very good action film.

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9 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Harrison Ford is the coolest., 2 November 1998

Author: Rick Peach from USA

Patriot Games is a very well done action movie. I didn't feel dumbed down by the plot and everyone took their role seriously. Harrison Ford is the best action star of his generation and this movie is a brillant example of how Hollywood can sometimes make a good action picture. The film is well cast and the direction by Phillip Noyce is top notch. Patriot Games is well worth your while, especially if you like smart action pictures and Harrison Ford.

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13 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
An action packed movie that conveys a man's love for his family and a moral consciousness of right from wrong for his fellow human beings., 6 August 2004

Author: l-k-bell from denver, colorado

I have read all of the Tom Clancy fiction books and the first time I saw the Patriot Games I was very disappointed that the movie didn't follow the book more closely. I feel that the incident in England, the way it happened in the book is much more exciting and entertaining than the movie and it carries over to the gathering at the Ryan's home later in the movie and the ending in the book is even more dramatic. But, after watching the movie a few more times and reading the book several more times I realized that because there is so much that happens in the book, there is no way to fit it in the movie. I have come to the conclusion that the story line in the movie has captured the basic tale involved showing the type of person Jack Ryan is and the principals that he stands for throughout all of Tom Clancy's books.

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8 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Very good action thriller, 21 December 2002

Author: perfectbond

In Patriot Games, the always reliable Harrison Ford stars as reluctant action hero Jack Ryan in Phillip Noyce's adaptation of Tom Clancy's Patriot Games. Good suspenseful action sequences always entertain, though the climatic boat chase isn't as impressive as it should be because it was filmed at night. Sean Bean is convincing and suprisingly sympathetic as IRA freedom fighter Sean Miller who lets his yearnings for revenge lead him astray from his cause. The talented James Earl Jones and Richard Harris are woefully underutilized though that's understandable considering this film is primarily a confrontation between Ford's Ryan and Bean's Miller. Solid if unspectacular, 7/10.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Have to admit, I like this, 24 November 2002
Author: Rachel-20 from California

OK, so it has some plot holes, and I generally spend a good amount of time detailing for my husband the deviations from the novel (which are many, since Hollywood doesn't make many five-hour movies). And it's predictable and artless and has plenty of clichés. I make it a point not to read IMDB reviews for a movie until after I've written my own, but even so I can guess that this one has been torn apart on these points probably at least a dozen times. Now that that's over with, I'm going to admit that I like this movie. It feels like a tight thriller, good for those nights when I want entertainment with some minor complexity. I like to "go along for the ride", so to speak, even though I know how it ends. And going back to the first time I saw this, before I'd read the book, I remember being on the edge of my seat quite a bit.

Thora Birch does this film a lot of good. Her expressions and lines are quite well-acted, and she's cute without being syrupy. Harrison Ford is Harrison Ford; you either like him or you don't, and this movie isn't going to change your mind (I happen to like him).

Don't go renting this one if you want an artsy movie, or a beautiful movie, or a movie with a perfectly tight script. But if you can enjoy a film for simple entertainment value, and you like Harrison Ford ;), this is a good one for after the kids are in bed.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
A great credit to Clancy that one if his books was made into a movie that almost lived up to the book, 3 October 2004
Author: krillin123 from NSW, Australia

I think this film's greatness (it is indeed great) is a credit more to Clancy than the film makers, because writing is the most crucial part of any film. Unfortunately, a novel adapted to a film will almost never be as good as the book because there just isn't enough time or money to include everything and make everything look as good as it reads. This is evident here. Having said that they certainly didn't leave it to the story to support itself. Impressive heroics from Ford and a superb bad guy performance from Sean Bean (strikingly similar to his performance in the James Bond film Golden Eye) turned Clancy's classy classic book into a classy film. I was also impressed to discover that the director was none other than Australia's Phillip Noyce. As is also sadly common among films made from books, the plot was a little hard to follow due to the audience having to fill in the gaps that were left by the film makers not having time or money to include it all.

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10 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Oh Good , A Film Where The IRA Are Bad Guys ...., 21 November 2002

Author: Theo Robertson from Isle Of Bute , Scotland

...... Oh hold on they`re not the peace loving pacifists of the provisional IRA they`re a mad mental IRA splinter group that this film is at pains to point out have nothing to do with the " nice terrorists " who murdered over 1800 people in the 70s 80s and 90s . To be fair to the film adaption of PATRIOT GAMES the source novel suffers even worse from this objectionable point where the bad guys are not the IRA but a distinct breakaway organisation called the Ulster Liberation Army . But this is still a naive film . As far as I know the SAS don`t go around illegally wiping out terrorist training camps ( If only they did ) and once again we see an IRA terrorist played by an uberhunk . This happens with disturbing regularity in movies: Sean Bean , Pierce Brosnan , Richard Gere , Brad Pitt all have played Irish terrorists . Listen next time someone makes a film about the IRA ( Which I hope will be never ) can we see a short balding actor like Danny Devito or Joe Pesci take on the role ?

Politics aside I still don`t think much of PATRIOT GAMES . It`s just one of those average generic revenge thrillers that doesn`t have to feature IRA terrorists , or terrorists of any ilk. If the hero was walking past a bank and stopped an armed robbery , or walked past a drugs bust and shot one of the drug dealers you could have a film with more or less the same plot and structure - and a lot more credibility

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. It`s also a poor excuse of an action film

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Good guys are real good, and the bad guys are real bad., 4 March 2008

Author: LieutenantJohnChard from United Kingdom

Patriot Games is a more than serviceable thriller, perhaps a bit out of date when viewing it now, but still a very effective good against evil piece. The source material is so dense and intricate it was always going to be hard to condense that into a 2 hour movie but I feel the makers manage to keep it fleshy whilst making the respective characters interesting and watchable. The acting on show is more than adequate, Harrison Ford is great in the role of Jack Ryan, he manages to portray him as a sensitive family man who can step up to the plate when things get ugly, and Anne Archer is solid enough as the wife and mother caught up in the web of nastiness unfolding.

The baddies are led by the brooding Sean Bean who is a little under written, whilst Richard Harris is sadly underused, but the action set pieces make their mark and thankfully we get a riveting final reel that cements the steady ride we have under taken. It is formulaic to a degree, but that is OK if the combined efforts of all involved are spot on, and here they are, 7/10.

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