‘You get him, Jack. I don’t care what you have to do. Just get him...’
There is no such thing as a sure thing at the movies. Everyone is capable of producing a stinker. You might think that a film starring Harrison Ford, Anne Archer, James Earl Jones, Sean Bean and Samuel L. Jackson simply cannot be boring, and then you watch Patriot Games, and you realise that actually anything can be boring…
Jack Ryan (Ford) has just left the CIA but he comes back for one last job (sigh) after becoming embroiled in an IRA assassination attempt. His wife (Archer) and kid (Thora Birch) are also implicated.
I love Harrison Ford. I think he’s one of the greatest movie stars to ever live. The guy is Indiana Jones and Han Solo for chrissakes. But I did not enjoy his performance here. Jack Ryan just seems like a bit of a dick, if I’m honest. I think the same about James Bond. I don’t want to go for a pint with any of these men. I would, however, go for a pint with Richard Harris, who appears here as ‘Irish man in pub’ (a role that he rehearsed for pretty much every night by all accounts), but the rest of the characters are dull as dishwater.
It’s clear from my reaction here that Jack Ryan films are not for me. He’s just a tedious character. A company man. I don’t care about him or his family. Still though… it’s a great cast isn’t it, and that counts for something.
