Conference bookie::movies

It's the next in the series that brought us The Hunt for Red October and
Patriot Games.  Apparently, in this one Ford is taking on the whole CIA, which
has gone bad in some way; perhaps someone that read the book can provide more
details (avoiding spoilers, of course).

I believe the title is just "Clear and Present Danger" -- no "A".

    
    If it's the same as the book, it involves a covert CIA operation to
    knock-off a drugs baron that goes a tad wrong.  When the initiators of
    this operation try to abandon the troops in Columbia, Ryan tries to
    help out.  An excellent book, but I hope they don't give it the
    'Patriot Games' treatment, which was so far removed from the plot of
    the book it meant the storyline was totally different.
    
    
    Ian

    Entertainment Tonight has been running brief stories about this film
    over the past 4-5 months. Yes - it is based on another of the Tom
    Clancy books. Harrison Ford again plays Jack Ryan, CIA. However,
    according to Harrison Ford's interview with ET, the movie plot will
    vary from the book, because in the book, Ryan isn't really a major
    player until at least 2/3rds of the way through the story. "jack's"
    role in the story has been beefed up for the movie.
    
    ET has shown several times the shoot-out scenes and "blow-up" scenes
    that supposedly take place in South America, more of a special effects
    highlight than a movie plot highlight.
    
    I'm looking forward to this - even though Patriot Games strayed from
    the book, I liked the "revised" movie version. Of course, anything with
    Harrison Ford already has a lot going for it IMHO... :^)
    
    janetb.
    

    
    I have seen the previews for this recently and I only hope that they
    do a better job than was done with Patriot Games.  The movie version
    of Patriot Games was so altered from the book and was in general so
    lame that I felt cheated When I rented the Video. I have liked most
    of Harrison Ford's work but I got the sense that Patriot Games was
    just thrown together and he was just collecting a paycheck.
    
    They missed the mark..
    
    -D

    Oh, I dunno.  I rather felt Patriot Games the movie added a sense of
    depth to the adversaries that was severly lacking in the book.  It also
    a level of humanity to the Jack Ryan character that is sadly missing in
    the books.   The only part of Patriot Games that I thought "lame" was
    the boat chase/fight.  Ergh.
    
    Now, A Clear and Present Danger was my favorite out of the Clancy
    books, but encompassed WAY too much to fit into two hours.  Hopefully a
    decent job will come out of it.
    
    
    kim

I generally like Harrison Ford movies (Indiana Jones I and III, Witness,
Blade Runner, etc), but I feel that he is *completely* wrong for Jack
Ryan.  I *much* prefer Alec Baldwin, who I thought did a much better
job of capturing Jack than does Harrison (compare the fight scene in the
missile room of the Red October where Jack is just trying to cope with a 
dangerous adversary and is scared but doing adequately, with the scenes where
Jack is running around his house chasing terrorists and saying "ho hum,
another terrorist to kill, no problem").  Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan is
playing superhero (ala Indiana Jones) whereas Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan
is playing an ordinary guy who keeps getting in over his head and just
does the best he can in hairy situations.

RE: .5

>    Oh, I dunno.  I rather felt Patriot Games the movie added a sense of
>    depth to the adversaries that was severly lacking in the book.  It also
>    a level of humanity to the Jack Ryan character that is sadly missing in
>    the books.   

I could not disagree more.  The bad guys in the book had depth and 
believability, whereas in the movie they were stock bad guys, who were out
to get Jack and his family for no discernible reason.  And as for Jack's
"humanity", the only scenes where he wasn't playing Superman were when
he was explaining to Cathy why he was going back to CIA, and then he just
mumbled "A man's got to do what a man's got to do" (or words to that effect).

>                 The only part of Patriot Games that I thought "lame" was
>    the boat chase/fight.  Ergh.

Now there we agree.  Eliminating the entire Navy/Marine plotline was a 
real disaster, and hurt the ending terribly.
    
-- Ken Moreau

>                 The only part of Patriot Games that I thought "lame" was
>    the boat chase/fight.  Ergh.
    As an avid Maryland sailor, I'd like to know where on the Chesapeake
    bay Jack Ryan lives. We have a few very modest dropoffs where the land
    meets the bay, but nothing like the tall, stony cliff shown in the
    movie. The bay was also mighty choppy, but I'll allow that in a
    thunderstorm. On the other hand, the visibility seemed mighty good.
    It would be very hard to tell that Ryan was alone in the boat at night
    even if it were calm; much less so during a high-speed chase in a
    thunderstorm.
    			Jim B.

    For some reason, I thought he lived further north than the Chesapeake
    Bay -- like in Maine.  On the other hand, he WAS teaching at Annapolis, 
    wasn't he?  And she worked at John Hopkins.  Quite the commute from
    northern New England. 
    
    Oh well, guess it wasn't Maine.  I used to wonder where that house was
    supposed to be, too.... 

As I haven't read the book... I can't comment on how much or how little it 
strayed from the book.  But overall _A Clear And Present Danger_ was an 
excellent film.  The pacing was superb.  The special effects were great.  Though
the opening scene with Harrison Ford seemed out of place compared to the rest of
the movie (Can you say "Bad Acting"?).   Nice weave of the plot and the 
situations around it.  There are a couple places where you have to have a "leap 
of faith"... but definitely go and see it!  Actually, let me restate that... go 
see it in a THX Cinema.   :-)

BTW... the "bad" guy has an uncanny resemblance to Phil Hartman from Saturday 
Night Live.

Also, this movie was a heck of a lot better than _Patriot Games_.


Bevan

    > On the other hand, he WAS teaching at Annapolis,
    > wasn't he?  And she worked at John Hopkins.
    
    We live just north of Annapolis, so it was fun to see the familiar
    sights on the big screen. Especially Route 50, the main drag from
    Washington past Annapolis to the Bay Bridge. It was interesting to see
    someone finally yield to the temptation to fire an automatic weapon at
    the other traffic ;-)
    				Jim

    We went to see this last night, and I liked it. I didn't love it, and
    my husband didn't like it as much as I did (but then he doesn't have a
    "thing" about Harrison Ford :^))
    
    I felt they tried to do too much in this movie. It's long, about 2
    hours 20 minutes, and about 20 minutes too long for an action movie. It
    seemed the editing staff went on vacation right after they started on
    this.
    
    It has one of the best "blow up/ambush" scenes I've ever seen in a 
    movie. We were trying to figure out how you could even film that
    without someone getting hurt (will tell which one after the ff), but
    all in all, it required too much suspension of disbelief to rate as 
    a great, or even very good action movie.
    
    
    Major spoilers:
    
    The scene where Ryan and the rest of the Americans were ambushed in
    Colombia was so real it was very frightening. Then, of course, they had 
    to ruin it by having him be the *only one* of about 20 people to
    survive. Gimme a break!
    
    Another thing that bothered me was when he was in Ritter's PC Account,
    and trying to read the files on Reciprocity was too much. I kept going
    hasn't he heard of print screen? Of course, once he figured out to use 
    print screen he was out of paper!
    
    Lastly was the editing, much as Greer's funeral was touching, it was 
    much too long, and didn't add anything to the storyline, just to the 
    time of the movie.
    
    See it if you're an HF fan, otherwise, wait for it on video.
    
    2.75 out of 4 (.25 for HF)
    
    
    Marilyn 
                   

    We saw this last night too Marilyn.
    
    I agree it was about 20 minutes too long but like yourself it wasn't
    too tough for me to watch HF for over 2 hours :^}
    
    Oh the panoramic scenes of Columbia were breath taking.  I did like the
    way the country's beautiful landscape was showcased - even as a
    backdrop to the 'ugliness' of organized crime. 
    
    spoilers behind FF
    
    
    
    Once again they have some 'computer type guy' breaking into an account
    - it irks me that they (movie makers) still do this.  But, I, like the
    rest of the audience did get a kick out of the 'time to change my ATM
    code' made by one of the agents. :^) (though I've never used birthdays
    as PINs)
    
    Also, I remeber thinking on 2 separate occasions - oh puhleazzzzeee
    Jack was the only survivor?!?!?  it was a nice touch though to have him
    discover that the guy he worked so hard to save was actually dead.
    Great effects in that shootout in the alley though - but the effects of
    Jack hanging out of the helicopter were 'old fashioned' blue screen and
    kind of distracting.
    
    I give it a 4.5 out of 5 but that extra .5 was due to the great 
    company I had :^}
    
    
    Joyce

    
    I took a call yesterday from Jack Ryan.  I had just got done reading
    this entry...I was chuckling on the phone. :-)

    Wednesdaynite I caught a part of Jay Leno show where he was
    interviewing Harrison Ford. The point of the visit was to hype the new
    movie but Leno had dug up a clip from the first film (according to the
    conversation) that Ford was even in... played a bell hop trying to
    deliver a message, with James Coburn as a hotel patron. Ford did not
    looked pleased about this clip - he didn't say anything but had a look
    on his face like... " I thought I burned all copies of that film".
    Audience had a good chuckle, Ford looked about 18 in the clip. He said
    that his acting instructor (he implied he was in some school at the
    time), after seeing the dailies for that clip, suggested Ford find
    another line of work than acting. Audience also got a good chuckle from
    that too. (btw -  I missed the name of the movie - any ideas?) 
    
    The clip from Clear and Present Danger they showed was "Jack" trying to
    rent a helicopter in what you assume is South America. Owner (somewhat
    laid back sleazy looking character) says not for rent, only buy for
    $2million. Ford "ok, how about a test drive?" Dealer "OK, need
    deposit...$2million". Ford agrees and asks if he'll take a company
    check and hands him a CIA card. 
    
    The funniest part of the show was after Harrison Ford had left and the
    next guest - female (don't remember who she was) was extremely excited
    about having been in the same waiting room as Harrison Ford. Apparently
    she had been on the show before and made eyes at Marsalis, the band
    leader. When Leno kidded her about making a play at him again, she made
    comments to the effect of: "I don't think so...I was just in the same
    room with Harrison Ford... nothing looks good after that". I got a kick
    out of it... kinda know what she means! :^)
    
    janetb.
    hoping to see C&PD this weekend

    I haven't read the Tom Clancy books, and don't remeber if they said in
    Patriot Games (I also didn't see HFRO), but what is Jack Ryan a doctor
    of?
    
    
    Marilyn

    
    re: .15
    
    I believe Ryan has a Doctorate in History, or possibly Military
    History.
    
    DFW

    Saw this over the weekend. Neither I nor my wife thought it too long.
    Indeed, the movie ended too soon for us ... we wanted to see more of
    the final scene as the credits rolled.
    
    Spoil�
    
    Not having read the book, I half expected Bill Grier (James Earl Jones)
    to show up alive and well somewhere near the end, pulling Ryan's fat
    out of the fire. The cancer stuff could have been an act to smoke the
    bad guys out.
    
      John

    Saw this during the week.... both my husband and I liked it a lot (of
    course being a Harrison Ford fan certainly helps me watch something 
    like this :^) !
    
    I didn't mind the changes from the book, except for the ending. I have a
    real problem with the movie ending, though my husband thought it was
    ok. the rest of the changes were ok - given that no movie ever seems to
    follow the book. Female captain for the Coast Guard Cutter was an
    interesting change - I wonder if it was to be more "PC" since the rest
    of the movie really is a bunch of guys running around playing soldier.
    
    I also pictured Cortez older than the actor they had playing him and
    the Clark character should have been older, though I thought William
    Defoe did ok in the role.
    
    There was a nice touch in one of the beginning scene with the "ryans"
    at home at breakfast time. The little girl is helping her brother with
    breakfast and she uses the same line the "Dad" used on her in Patriot
    Games... "We don't have time for pancakes, do you want toast...or toast".
    Subtle, but a cute touch.
    
    Nice scenery - did I catch in the credits that was Mexico? 
    
    Overall - good  - might even pay full price for it (though we were able
    to catch it at matinee prices).
    
    janetb.

My wife and I saw it, and our opinion was split down the middle: she loved
it (heavily influenced by the presence of Ford) while I hated it.

The writers *RUINED* a very good book.  I don't mind the cutting (losing 
the entire Coast Guard ship and helicopter pilot sub-plots, as well as the
interaction with the druggies who started the whole thing, plus all of the
detail with the teams on the ground, and the FBI etc), because we needed to 
cut this behemoth down to size.  That's ok.  What bothered me *A LOT* were 
the massive wholesale changes in character, as follows:

- Ritter was changed from a guy who is trapped by circumstances to one who
  is (at best) uncaring about other peoples lives, and at worst actively
  evil (his discussion with Clark concerning Ryan's involvement, and his
  suggestion about what Clark should do to Ryan).

- Clark was almost unrecognizable.  In the book he was convinced that 
  there are certain people and things in the world that were a "clear and
  present danger" to his country, and that if appropriately authorized, 
  he had the duty to eliminate that danger to his country.  In the movie
  he is more of a random madman, willing to kill anyone who happened to
  get in his way.

- Larson is changed from a clear headed reliable and competent person to an
  incompetent drunk.

- Judge Moore was eliminated completely.  I mean, wouldn't you think that
  the head of the CIA would get involved when two of his major department
  heads are feuding like that?

- Ryan is changed from a relatively logical, relatively sane, and fairly
  moral person to a naive idiot who can't believe that anyone might actually
  get involved with politics.  Think of his interaction with Ritter (and
  the "get out of jail free card") and the last few scenes between him and
  the President and him and Cutter.  And finally, doesn't the moron realize
  that the DDI is a valuable property for ransom?  Going down to a foreign
  country and throwing around his business card was a monumentally stupid
  thing to do.  And finally, he is simply not in shape to wander around 
  in the field, and Clark should have told him that.  In the book Ryan does
  get involved, but only from a helicopter, never on the ground.  In the
  movie (and this is the same problem I had with Patriot Games), Harrison
  Ford plays Indiana Jones who goes into danger with a smile on his face,
  beating up on the bad guys with abandon and only getting hurt enough to
  show that he has been in a fight.  The entire fight sequence with Cortez
  was unbelievably stupid, and it totally ruined whatever small shred of
  enjoyment I had up to that time.

I did like Cortez, and while Escobedo didn't match my mental picture, I had
no trouble making the shift.

I did also like the way the movie cut between the two people involved in an
action: Ryan and Ritter fighting over the RECIPROCITY files, and the CIA
and Cortez figuring out what happened with the explosion.  That is a nice
technique and was well done.

But on the whole, I will re-rent Hunt for Red October to try and remember
how good a Tom Clancy movie can be, and to see Jack Ryan portrayed the way
he should be, and get the memory of this (and Patriot Games) out of here.

IMHO, of course.

-- Ken Moreau

re: .18

 > Nice scenery - did I catch in the credits that was Mexico? 

 Yep, I caught that, too.  Although I've got to believe that the Caracas,
 Venezuela skyline really was Caracas.

Ann

    Finally caught this one on tape the other night.
    
    I liked it, save for the fact that Jack Ryan's "Black and White Boy
    Scout"-edness was played up a bit too much.  I know he's that way in
    the book and that's why I really can't say that I like Jack Ryan all
    that much there, but at least in "Patriot Games", Ford put a human spin
    on him that made his good-doobie-ness easier to swallow.
    
    I had a difficult time with feeling that we were supposed to think that
    the President, his National Security Advisor and the other guy in the
    CIA were terrible slime and had Done The American People A Great Wrong
    by partaking in this little war against the evil Columbian Drug
    Cartels.  Oh, I realize that it was all illegal and that stuff, but
    hell, that was the best part of the book.  And it worked.  So I had a
    hard time getting all Jack-Ryan-fired up about this sort of "betrayal
    of the public trust".  There was only one slimy action on the part of
    any of them, really, that could be held as morally reprehensible, and
    even that felt like more of a plot bone being tossed in to make sure
    that we, the audience, really understood that These Policital Guys Were
    Bad.  It also gave Ryan his usual excuse to be holier-than-thou.  
    
    I found myself not terribly minding the fact that Jack got to get
    hands-on involved in all this shoot-em up stuff -- it did make him more
    involved after all, and Harrison Ford does that "normal guy stuck in
    not-so normal consequences" very well.  And I rather liked William
    Defoe as Clark (again, he made Clark more palatable to me than Clancy
    does, but Clancy makes all his hero's Just Swell and Aces At What They
    Do, and I'm a fan of having heroes I can identify with in the human
    sense).   
    
    I think some people complained that the movie was a bit sedate.  That
    seems to be Philip Noyce's style (if I'm not mistaken, he directed
    "Patriot Games").  I find it a nice change from the breakneck pace that
    most movies like this are filmed with -- breakneck paces are good for
    straight out action-adventure movies (ala "Speed" or your usual
    Arnie/Stallone type movie).   "Clear and Present Danger" didn't strike
    me as the kind of movie that could be lumped into the simple
    action-adventure genre -- it was more of an action-drama and therefore,
    the lulls in the action were just fine.
    
    So basically, a thumbs up.
    
    *** out of ****
    
    kim