Review of Clear and Present Danger (1994) by Hoss R — 19 Sep 2007
I rented this movie entirely on the strength of Harrison Ford who is one of my favorite actors. The cast all around is top-notch. Dafoe, Czerny, Sandoval, and others all came together to make this film watchable.
Based on another of Tom Clancy?s novels, Jack Ryan's mentor in the intelligence office, played by James Earl Jones, is diagnosed with cancer early in the film and so he assigns Jack to act in his stead.
The President wants revenge on a drug lord who killed a friend of his, and this sets into motion a covert operation to take out the cartel leader and claim his vast earnings. Before he knows what is happening, Jack has been set up to take the blame for a variety of underhanded decisions by the US Government and is thrown head first into an explosive ring of deceit in the White House and in South America.
This all sounds like it should make for a taught, entertaining ride, but for some reason it just never pans out that way. Clancy's story is clearly too involved to be covered in a two hour movie, and here we get a 2 1/2 hour movie that feels too long while still lacking on character development.
Even Ryan isn't given much in the way of characterization except for the backhanded compliment "He's a boy scout" repeatedly applied by his enemies in the government. So we get the idea that Jack is a principled, honest guy doing the best he can in the lion's den, but he seems like more of an archetype than a true human being, and this goes double for the other, lesser characters.
It's a fine story, but feels weighed down; and the ending, for an otherwise lengthy picture, feels rushed and incomplete. It looks nice enough and it has some decent action, but nothing that really grabbed me.
I feel like I've seen everything before, many times. The explosions, the gunfights, the helicopter stunts... I guess maybe that's the problem. There's not much about Clear and Present Danger to make it memorable.
Not a bad lazy Saturday afternoon action movie, but little more.
This review of Clear and Present Danger (1994) was written by Hoss R on 19 Sep 2007.
Clear and Present Danger has generally received positive reviews.
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