Well, what can I say? Harrison Ford still hasn't done a bad movie; he must be one of the most successful actors ever. The movie CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER is a complicated political action/thriller. The main plot is that the US wants to get revenge on a Columbian who killed a US businessman, and also would like to stop drug smuggling from Columbia into the US.
Do not expect to go to this movie and just sit back and not think. CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER in some parts is hard to follow so if you are expecting a easy-to-follow, "full-of-action" movie you may not want to see this one. It deals with more legal and political subjects than action, but this movie has a great finish and the acting is superb.
Although this film is mostly serious, some humour has been slipped into it to make it a bit more entertaining during the "slow" parts of the film. Harrison Ford plays Jack Ryan, who works for US intelligence and is forced to take over James Earl Jones's job as Deputy when James Earl Jones finds out he has cancer. Harrison Ford then falls into a deadly trap since he has to fly down to Columbia under the President of the US's orders to apprehend a man who is wanted for the murder of a woman working for him. Ford finds that this flight becomes a lot more dangerous than he expected since he barely gets out alive after many Columbians (from a drug smuggling clan) begin a small war by shooting at Ford's car and other vehicles around him. Ford does get out alive, but just barely.
The movie starts off quite slow but by the end you are into it since the action and suspense is classic (sort of like that of the previous Harrison Ford/Tom Clancy movie PATRIOT GAMES). This is not one of Ford's best movies, but I would say it is worth the 8 bucks to go see it since it is fit for the big screen, and it is a nice lengthy entertaining yet complicated movie.
By : Adam Taylor
Source: rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup
Rating: 4
"The world is gray, Jack." - Czerny to Ford Continuity buffs can rejoice at the return of Jack Ryan in CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, the third Tom Clancy adaptation behind THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER and PATRIOT GAMES. Back is second-star Harrison Ford (after Alec Baldwin). Back is second-director Philip Noyce, who helmed the horrendous PATRIOT GAMES.
And, surprise, the film is good. Very good. The story sees Jack stepping into the shoes of his boss (James Earl Jones), the Acting Deputy Director of Intelligence. Conflict comes when Ryan's White House "buddies" won't let him in on a little secret--the fact that President has given his round-about authorization to a covert military operation against a Columbia drug lord (Sandoval). (Said czar murdered a friend of the President (Donald Moffat) that is a very bad thing to do.)
So, when the operation inevitably goes from worse to up doo-doo creek, Ryan finds out too much, too late. And he blows. His. Stack.
CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER is a big, loud, military movie, brimming with bombs, and jets, and Coast Guard cutters, and aircraft carriers, and, of course, stone-faced soldiers carrying flag-draped caskets. Just the way that Tom Clancy writes 'em, and just the way co-writer John Milius scripts 'em.
Like THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, the cast is filled almost entirely by solemn, serious-looking men who spend all of the their time making Important Decisions without every cracking their countenance. Ford, Moffat, Jones, Harris Yulin, Henry Czerny, Joaquim de Almeida, Raymond Cruz, Miguel Sandoval, and Willem DaFoe make up *the* best boys club of the summer.
(Best of the bunch in Harris Yulin as the President's Chief of Staff. His silence speaks volumes. But what's Dean Jones doing here?)
The film has a good pace, despite the mildly confusing plot. Those who haven't read the novel (or seen a good spy movie lately) may need to take notes. The politics are also very good and, even though the bad guys *do* get theirs, the film is remarkably devoid of any gratuitious violence.
Too bad that everything is played way-too-straight. CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER is about as rigid as they come and, under the unexpectedly tight reigns of Noyce, allows almost *no* room for levity. James Earl Jones gets to show all of two smiles, and Harrison Ford loosens up some, and that's about it, and that's a shame.
CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER is too long and too literate to be a toss-away actioner, but, with a little added "breathing room" for the characters, could've been on *heck* of an epic.
BOTTOM LINE: Twice as good as PATRIOT GAMES, but lacks the slick sheen of THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER.
By : Michael J. Legeros
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