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After watching Patriot Games last night, I figured fuck it, let's go on and keep rolling on the Jack Ryan train. So tonight I watched Clear and Present Danger.
Here's one thing I noticed: The Jack Ryan films just keep getting bigger. The producers are obviously of the mind that you always have to try to outdo the last film and bigger = better.
In The Hunter for Red October, the whole movie is shot on a submarine and the closest thing you get to an action scene is when Sean Connery merks this one dude near the beginning of the movie. In Patriot Games, the scope is expanded to include two countries and some proper gunplay, along with an action finale on a boat. And in Clear and Present Danger the scope is expanded even further to include snipers and lots of explosions and military guys doing shit in the jungle and ambushes on the street and a daring finale where our hero has to jump onto a moving helicopter and be pulled to safety at the last minute.
(And I think in The Sum of All Fears a nuke comes into play or whatever, I dunno, I haven't watched that one in years.)
Bigger does not always equal better though. Maybe it's because I feel like films and TV shows about the Colombian cartels is played out--just in the last handful of years we've gotten Cocaine Cowboys, Narcos, Snowfall, American Made and The Infiltrator--but I just had a hard time staying interested in this one. I much preferred the more intimate story, as well as the less trodden path of Northern Ireland and the IRA, that made up Patriot Games.
It's not that this is a poor film. From a craftsmanship standpoint it's certainly well made, and it also has a great cast. I'd say that the story that it's telling is told well. I just didn't have a whole lot of interest in the story that it's telling.
I'll give it a 6.5/10. It probably deserves better than that, but I just wasn't feeling it.
The Hunt for Red October
Patriot Games
Clear and Present Danger
That's my ranking thus far. And since I've come this far I guess I'll say fuck it once again and keep on rolling with this series.
Next Up - Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit