|
 Movie A- |
Video B | Audio B+
| Extras C
Harrison Ford, Anne Archer, Patrick Bergin, Sean
Bean, Thora Birch, James Fox, James Earl Jones, and Richard Harris
director Phillip Noyce | Paramount
1992 | Action - Thriller | R | 116 minutes
Region 1 | DVD-9
anamorphic
widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio
DTS 5.1 |
Dolby Digital 5.1
Summary: Harrison Ford picks up the lead role in
this second film of the Jack Ryan franchise.
Incidentally, Alec Baldwin plays Jack Ryan in the first film, The
Hunt for Red October. With
Harrison Ford playing the lead character in this Tom Clancy series, Jack
Ryan is now an older character. In
fact, Jack Ryan is retired from the CIA at the beginning of Patriot Games.
He is now an author and guest lecturer.
On a combined business/family trip to London, Jack stumbles across
a team of terrorist trying to attack Lord Holmes.
Reactively, he gathers his wife and young daughter and huddles them
close to the ground as the attack unfolds.
But impulsively, he runs out to stop the terrorists in a
heart-pounding action sequence. In
his action, he kills one of the terrorists.
For his success in thwarting the terrorist’s efforts, he is
knighted: Sir Jack Ryan.
Soon after the family returns home to the
United States, Jack gets word that one of the terrorist escapes from
prison. His greatest fear is
realized since the escaped terrorist is the older brother of the one he
killed. As the escaped
terrorist makes it his personal mission to seek revenge for his
brother’s life, Jack reluctantly rejoins the CIA in order to track down
the terrorist cell and protect his family.
From start to finish, Patriot Games is a gut-wrenching,
heart-pounding action-thriller.
Harrison Ford gives a stunning and palpable performance while
portraying a sense of vulnerability in his character.
Unfortunately,
the video transfer suffered from some graininess and pixelation during the
darker and dimly lit scenes. I
found this somewhat distracting to my viewing enjoyment. Otherwise, the picture quality was reasonably good.
The DTS 5.1 soundtrack
was enjoyable, featuring a good mix of dialog, sound effects, and
beautiful scoring by James Horner (of Titanic fame).
I would have to agree with the filmmaker’s commentary that
Patriot Games is a thinking man’s action-thriller film.
Don’t miss out on the other Jack Ryan movies: The Hunt for Red
October (stars Alec Baldwin, 1990), Clear and Present Danger (stars
Harrison Ford, 1994), and The Sum of
All Fears (stars Ben Affleck, 2002).
This four-movie collection is available together as a Jack Ryan box
set.
Special Features: "Patriot Games Up
Close" featurette with new cast and crew interviews; theatrical
trailer
DVD released on 5/6/2003 | Reviewed 5/11/2003
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Additional Notes: Unless we specify otherwise, the
video and audio quality are very good when their grades are "A-"
or better. Only the highest number of channels of surround sound
format is listed (e.g., Dolby Digital 5.1). If there are both Dolby
Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks, then both are listed. All
DVD-Video discs are backwards compatible with stereo-only playback
systems.
Let us know what you think about this DVD review, write to us at
Staff@TimeForDVD.com.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES STR-V444ES A/V receiver, four
B&W CDM 9NTs as left/right main speakers
and left/right surrounds, B&W CDM CNT center channel speaker, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable
Interlink 400 MKII interconnects, Monster Cable
Original speaker cables in bi-wire configuration with Monster Cable twist-on gold-plated banana plug
connectors, Lovan Sovereign T HiFi audio
rack, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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