Rent Patriot Games (1992)

Dated - but enjoyable - Patriot Games review by RP

A political / action thriller, now looking a little dated, but still pretty good. Harrison Ford plays Harrison Ford in his usual role as the humble man (of course) who battles to protect his family and (of course) succeeds in the end against the odds.

The storyline goes like this: Harrison Ford plays Jack Ryan (ex US Marines, ex CIA analyst) who is in London for a conference. He foils an IRA-type attack on a minor Royal but kills the younger brother of one of the terrorists, who then targets Ryan and his family. The terrorist training camp in Libya is wiped out, but the baddies have already left and attack Ryan at his home. Baddies die, goodies live.

The problem is that events have overtaken the story, making it quite dated. There has been peace in N. Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the IRA has disarmed, and with the growing normalisation of relations with Libya from 2003 to the downfall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011 the idea of desert training camps is very much yesterday's news. Terrorist attacks in the UK have been from home-grown Islamic militants from 2005 onwards :(

The politics in the film is naive, and assumes the existence of 'good' terrorists (the IRA, represented by Richard Harris) and 'bad' terrorists (a violent splinter group, represented by Sean Bean). In fact it was the IRA (more accurately, the Provisional IRA) which was responsible for UK mainland bombings.

That said, I enjoyed the film way back in 1992 and enjoyed it now (2012) on DVD. But as I said, it has suffered from the passage of some 20 years. The world has moved on, but Harrison Ford is still playing the same 'humble man' roles :)

Good, Entertaining Action Thriller - Patriot Games review by GI

It was in the 90s that Harrison Ford really cemented his action film credentials and the two films he made playing Jack Ryan are really good and hold up as solid and entertaining action films. When Alec Baldwin bailed out of reprising the role after The Hunt For Red October (1990) Ford stepped in and has become the best remembered actor to play him. Ex CIA analyst Jack is on holiday in London with his wife and daughter when he steps in and foils an attempt by an IRA team to kidnap a member of the royal family. In the process Jack kills one of them and his brother, Sean (Sean Bean) vows revenge. He manages to escape custody and the plot is his obsessive attempts to murder Jack and his family. Jack is lured back into the CIA in order to lead the hunt for the terrorists. There's some gritty action scenes and a remarkable sequence of the SAS attacking a terrorist camp viewed via satellite images. The film rattles along at a great pace, with a gripping detective style plot and the cast are excellent including James Fox as the targeted royal, Patrick Bergin and Polly Walker as terrorists and Richard Harris has a cameo as an old IRA man. It's always worth returning to these films because they are well made, solid entertainment and unpretentious.