Patriot Games (1992)

Patriot Games

• The second movie of the Jack Ryan film series, this one was much better than the first, as well as having a better Jack Ryan. I’m not knocking Alec Baldwin in any way, because he did a great job. But Harrison Ford simply did better. Ford was literally born to play any action role, and his performance doesn’t disappoint one bit. He kind of brought a mix of Indiana Jones and James Bond into the movie, which made it fun and entertaining. Pretty much everything about this movie was more enjoyable than the first one. I really liked the story, and how Ryan travels abroad. A lot of the setting and action scenes is where the Indy/Bond feel comes from. Speaking of action scenes, they were all terrifically shot, which is exactly what you’d expect from a Harrison Ford action flick. And even when there wasn’t something exciting happening, there were still details to pay attention to in the action breaks. The music was pretty good, although it wasn’t anything special. It has the typical 90’s action film sound to it, but still exciting nonetheless. The characters were all really great as well. Obviously, you know my love for Harrison Ford, but don’t let him overshadow the rest of the cast. The return of James Earl Jones was really nice, and I love the inclusion of Samuel L. Jackson. But, besides Ford, the greatest performance in the movie was Sean Penn as Sean Miller. He was such a great antagonist, like he always is. I really liked the rage you can see from him, even though he may not always present it in a physical way. Overall, I would definitely recommend this movie to all action fans. You also don’t need to have seen the first movie before this one, which can be convenient. This film is officially Berry Approved, so go check it out now!