Patriot Games Blu-ray offers solid video and superb audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
When CIA analyst Jack Ryan thwarts an IRA assassination, a renegade faction targets him and his family for revenge.
For more about Patriot Games and the Patriot Games Blu-ray release, see Patriot Games Blu-ray Review published by Greg Maltz on July 23, 2008 where this Blu-ray release scored 4.0 out of 5.
After his stint as Han Solo, Harrison Ford seemed to be carving out a niche for himself as Jack Ryan,
the CIA analyst of Tom Clancy's spy novels. Ryan was a logical progression from the skeptical,
reckless, self-centered hero of Star Wars. Compared to more physical action heroes of the
era, like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ford offered a thinking-man's alternative--a
scholarly but impulsive ex-marine working as a naval educator who would sacrifice himself for
family, country and justice. Patriot Games features Ryan's return to the service of the CIA,
where he worked as an analyst under his mentor, Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones). The
Ryan stories feature a healthy combination of action, Bond-like plot and deliberate character
development. Paramount is to be commended for producing the Jack Ryan films for Blu-ray disc,
featuring 1080p and a Dolby TrueHD audio track.
Harrison Ford transformed himself into Jack Ryan for two adaptations of Tom Clancy's spy novels.
Patriot Games kicks off in England, where Ryan has brought his family from their home
in Annapolis, Maryland. After delivering a guest lecture to members of the British military, Ryan
meets his wife Cathy (Anne Archer) and daughter Sally (Thora Birch) near Buckingham Palace.
There, Ryan finds himself watching a terrorist attack unfold against British minister Lord William
Holmes (James Fox). Acting on instinct, Ryan first secures his family and then bodyslams and
disarms one terrorist, Sean Miller (Sean Bean). In the gunfire that follows, Ryan takes a bullet
near his shoulder. Returning fire, he kills Miller's little brother. The incident makes Ryan a hero in
England. He is awarded knighthood and finds new admiration from his friends, most notably Lt.
Cmdr. Robby Jackson (Samuel Jackson). But he also has made a tenacious enemy.
Miller's Irish comrades orchestrate his escape during a prison transfer, and he immediately seeks
to avenge his brother's death. The stakes are raised when the Irish terrorists allow Miller to target
Cathy and Sally. Consumed by vengeance, Miller then disappears. To catch him, Ryan is faced
with a challenge so daunting that he must return to the CIA. Greer is pleased to see Jack back in
Langley, but not under these stressful circumstances. With Ryan's superior skills as an analyst,
Greer orders a unit to hunt the Irish terrorists in a training camp in North Africa. But the real
battle hits far closer to home in every way, culminating in an ending that tests all of Ryan's
resources and resolve.
The 1080p presentation is held back a touch in detail and vibrancy, but it appears film-like
throughout, with supple, fine grain that is never obtrusive. Rich blacks and other dark colors add to
the depth, in which brighter elements seem to burst from the screen. Clothing textures, features,
hair and other details are not reference quality, but they are on par with other BD releases of titles
from the early '90s, such as Reservoir Dogs. The BD does show some variability from scene
to scene.
Watch the sequence outside Buckingham Palace, shot in drab weather. While detail is good,
vibrancy is somewhat muted. For that matter, so was the opening scene in the hotel room. But the
effect on the action sequence holds back its impact, as if it was shot a bit soft. To be fair, the picture
is head and shoulders above the DVD and there is no cause to be too critical of the video quality.
The brighter scenes appear more vibrant, with lifelike contrast and depth. Watch the scene on the
Naval campus as Ryan notices he's being followed. The ensuing action appears more vivid and
lifelike than the more subdued scenes. Overall, the picture appears to have good resolution
regardless of whether it is a day scene or night scene.
James Horner's compositions for Patriot Games may be up for debate--most tend to
either love the soundtrack or hate it--but there is little doubt that Paramount did a very good job
with the audio engineering for the film. The Blu-ray release sounds gorgeous, with a strong
soundstage across the front channels, detailed treble, rich midrange and taught bass in all the
right places. Horner used traditional orchestration as well as Celtic instrumentation, vocals and
even use of heavy synths. Apparently no one survived the '80s unscathed! But one needs only
hear the female vocalist Maggie Boyle's traditional Gaelic song in the main title to get a sense of
the "liquid midrange" that audiophiles are constantly yammering about. Speaking of which, my
most recent upgrade was to sell my B&W HTM-1 center speaker and replace it with the B&W
HTM1D center that more closely matches my pair of 802Ds for a seamless front L-C-R. The
HTM1D features the same midrange/tweeter housing and diamond dust encrusted tweeter as the
L/R speakers. The stiffness of the tweeter is capable of articulating any signal you throw at it
more accurately than B&W's old Nautilus tweeter. And Patriot Games has a wide variety
of treble content to give a clear sense of the extended highs.
Listen to the attack of the Celtic percussion during the intense build-up of the car-chase
sequence. Although the percussion instruments are struck rapidly, like popcorn, each strike is
articulated gorgeously with lifelike attack and decay. This treble display hovers above massed
strings that image in the midrange and midbass with more definition and detail than Dolby Digital
and CD deliver. Or listen to Sally and the other girls chatting after school. The tone and timbre of
their delicate voices distinguishes each character. The HTM1D likewise reveals incredible detail in
squealing brakes and crashing metal encoded in the Dolby TrueHD track. The bass is not quite as
defined but equally prodigious. Listen to the scene when Miller's convoy is attacked during his
prison transfer. Boats lob shells onto the road, captured by the audio track as explosions with
deep LFE response. At no time do the effects, music and dialog appear to get in the way of the
other, helping the mix achieve an open and detailed quality. I should note for multichannel
fanatics that the surround channels were quite anemic, but I find mixes heavy up front and light
in back to be more realistic if not as immersive.
Paramount continues to disappoint in the bonus features department. The only supplementary
content included on the Blu-ray is Patriot Games Up Close in standard definition and a high
definition theatrical trailer. The 1080p trailer notwithstanding, this is the exact same bonus content
featured on the 1999 "Collector's Edition" DVD. Up Close can best be characterized as a
documentary covering the making-of the film. It's mostly comprised of interviews with producer
Mace Neufield, although other cast and crew make appearances. Neufield has worked on all the Jack
Ryan movies and his observations are not terribly insightful. It was refreshing to learn that the cast
all got along and no real problems crept up during production--at least according to director Phillip
Noyce.
Patriot Games is not a perfect film, but the narrative is paced well, mixing spy genre action
with family drama and thriller elements--and even sprinkling in some humor here and there. The
Jack Ryan character is a lot of fun, played very effectively by Harrison Ford. In fact, he is my favorite
Jack Ryan. His only other film as Ryan, Clear and Present Danger, is about a cover-up in the
White House after an elite team of soldiers is sent to Columbia to attack the drug cartel. Patriot
Games is in a way a more contrived story in which international terrorism can focus on a
household and threaten an American family. But the way Clancy set it up is brilliant. And he
establishes the terrorists in a way that maintains political correctness both to the Irish and English.
It may seem completely unrealistic for a visiting American to get caught up in such a plot, but when
I spent a few weeks in London in the 1980s, I missed being blown up at a bandstand and in
carbombings outside Buckingham Palace by a matter of days. The carnage was all too real. But back
to the the BD. Patriot Games is an important addition to any Blu-ray library for fans of spy
thrillers, Harrison Ford or home theater fans looking for worthy audio demo material. The video, too,
is well worth the upgrade over DVD.
Patriot Games: Other Editions
4K
2-disc set $16.98
4K
2-disc set
Blu-ray
1-disc Wal-Mart
Blu-ray
1-disc
Blu-ray
1-disc Best Buy
Blu-ray Bundles/Box Sets with Patriot Games (4 bundles)
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Paramount Home Media Distribution will release on 4K Blu-ray Phillip Noyce's Patriot Games (1992), starring Harrison Ford, Anne Archer, Patrick Bergin, Sean Bean, and Thora Birch. The release will be available for purchase on May 24.
If you listen very carefully you can hear the sound of hundreds of thousands of wallets screaming for mercy. The biggest studio offering today comes from Paramount who have decided to issues six highly anticipated "make-up" titles for Blu-ray - including the blockbuster ...
Back when I first posted that Paramount would be releasing 'Patriot Games' and 'Sum of All Fears' on Blu-ray, I was flooded with questions about whether or not they would also be releasing the other two films in the now canceled 'Jack Ryan Collection'. Word from ...
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