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| Harrison
Ford, Sean Bean, Anne Archer, Thora Birch, James Earl Jones |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Admiral James Greer (James
Earl Jones): Excuse me, Jack, tell me one thing in life that is
absolutely for
certain.
Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford): My daughter's love.
Jack Ryan ruins the IRA's plans to
assasinate one of England's highest rated political men, and soon
ends up being targeted by them along with his family.
 Patriot
Games is one of those movies I only knew from TV and now I
know why: only on DVD do I realize why it isn't a very good
movie as a cinematic experience. The unlikely plot and character
development feel right at home on TV where our standards for these
things seem to reside a good few notches below the requirements
of logic. However, every time this movie came on for a late night
showing on TV, I couldn't resist watching it to the end. It delivered
all kinds of neat things in one package where most series take
at least two seasons to get all this in: in hindsight, probably
the first time I appreciated the difference. And whatever else
you think of Harrison Ford, the man is a convincing and intense
actor and he's as good a leading man here as he is anywhere else.
Patriot Games is based on the novel by Tom Clancy and as such
belongs to the trilogy started with The Hunt For Red October and
ended with Clear And Present Danger. It is the weakest movie
of the bunch, mainly because of the aforementioned illogical plot developments
and the characterizations of the IRA characters. The actors are all
quite good but it's obvious the book has been sidelined in favor of
some Hollywood writing. Director Phillip Noyce handles the action reasonably
well, although too much action is left unexplained. The best scene
is the one on the highway as Jack Ryan's wife and daughter are about
to be attacked by the terrorists. Nailbiting tension with the use of
a mobile phone may sound familiar now but this scene is the daddy of
them all. Make sure you've seen it at least once. The ending of the
movie with Jack Ryan and terrorist Sean Miller slugging it out is just
plain insulting and as I understand it Tom Clancy actually wanted his
name removed from the credits. No points for guessing why. |
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Early movie-only releases have
been available for Region 1 (non-anamorphic) and Region 2
(anamorphic, but drawn from the same master). A new 'Special
Collector's Edition' with newly remastered video and audio
and a few new supplements has since appeared for both regions
and served as the basis for this review.
The anamorphic widescreen
image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx. 2.35:1. A
huge step up from the poorly mastered first DVD release,
this new transfer remains slightly grainy and also rather
dark, but is still easily the best the film has looked on
home video.
The Dolby
Digital 5.1 sound mix sounds the same as the excellent
mix featured on the bare-bones DVD, but the new DTS track
offers a further step up, most notably in the increased
detail heard in the action sequences.
For those to whom the improved
audio and video aren't sufficient reason to replace their
old bare-bones DVD, there isn't all that much in the way
of extras to make this 'Special Collector's Edition' any
more attractive. The only new supplement is the newly produced
24-minute featurette that charts the film's
main production issues by using new interview footage with
the main participants of cast and crew. It's fairly straightforward
stuff, made more interesting by the focus on the last-minute
replacement of Alec Baldwin, and the power shift that clearly
occurred as soon as Ford stepped on board. The theatrical
trailer is the only other extra.Animated menu screens featuring
a rather tacky exploding movie logo offer easy access to the disc
features.
Gerard
Castelein
Reviewed:
June 10, 2003
Click
here for IMDB info on Patriot
Games.
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to return to the front page.
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