SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

merelyaninnuendo Cleared And Present Danger2 And A Half Out Of 5Clear And Present Danger is a plot driven political thriller about a culmination of all the usual agendas that fuels an act of war, brewing in by the darker forces. Ticking for almost two and a half hours, the overkill sets in early due to its subjective procedure that is not only off-putting but also follows a textbook structure. All the action and chase sequences are nicely shot with amazing sound effects and fine editing amongst all the mind-numbing explosions. The politics and reasonings are justified with no usual flaws which doesn't suggest its excellence but the safe play that it plays. As much as lousy its final act grows the little tactics that used to work in its predecessor fails to upbeat or elevate the momentum as it used to. The writing is overstretched and not elaborative, there is a fine line between them that makers often crosses it unknowingly. The result of such acts can draw a nod out of the audience but fails to impress them. It is short on technical aspects like visual effects, background score and cinematography and neither is its camera work plausible for it to seek attention through it. Ford is bang on his bucks on revisiting his role with amazing supporting cast like Dafoe, Archer and Jones. Noyce; the director has done a decent work on executing the feature but the real culprit is its sloppy script that isn't sincere enough to breed the essential crisp out of the screen. The clean satirical political act and sharp sound effects are the only high points of the feature. Clear And Present Danger is an unstable and out-dated mishap of politics that may be accurately tossed but unfortunately overcooks its outcome.

gavin6942 CIA Analyst Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) is drawn into an illegal war fought by the US government against a Colombian drug cartel.James Berardinelli remarked, "Clear and Present Danger is all plot and no characters. The people running around on screen have about as much depth as the sheen of sweat on Harrison Ford's forehead. Jack Ryan is the most disappointing of all. He's disgustingly virtuous: a flawless fighter for good and justice, a Superman without the cape. I spent half the movie wondering if this guy was ever going to show anything to mark him as vaguely human." That just seems too harsh, and for no good reason. This is an action film, after all. Sure, we do not get the depth we might like from Jack Ryan, but we have already developed him in two prior films. This is action, a spy thriller. We need twists, turns, gunfire and explosions! (And we get them, too.)

eolson1964-1 It's no wonder why Tom Clancy was angered with the making of his books into movies after Patriot Games. Many characters from the book were changed from the start of the movie. The movie was confusing for most audience members because it left out many chapters and sub plots from the book. In the book Jack Ryan does not find out the connection to the drug cartel until after the covert operation began because he never had a briefing with the President because the President had already made a statement of Clear and Present Danger. Ryan never meets Clark until after Escobedo's was bombed from an aerial strike. The movie also left out Samuel Jackson's character(Robby) out of the movie when he was a major part in the book discovering about the Covert Operation in Columbia. Harrison Ford Anne Archer and James Earl Jones reprized their roles with finesse. If you are an avid reader of Tom Clancy this movie will disappoint you.

johnnyboyz Where does one go after having taken on, and successfully parried, the threat of that of both Communism and Terrorism? Why, to wage war on Narcotics of course. At least, that is how the good folks charged with bringing to life the adventures of a C.I.A. agent named Jack Ryan see it, as too does the series original author Tom Clancy, whose source material I read was actually published on the brink of the Cold War's termination. With the Irish and the Soviets vanquished, that of Colombia's cocaine barons are next up on the chopping block for the world's most powerful intelligence agency. There is an eerie procession to things in that regard that mirrors today, an attitude of bountifully hopping from ideology to ideology; from nationality to nationality usurping the tyrants and conquering the odds– not so far away from modern foreign policy: the action starts when things kick off that we like neither the looks or sounds of it.Clear and Present Danger is probably the most cryptic of the first three Ryan adaptations – I imagine its title is meant somewhat ironically, as there are times when things are anything but clear and the narrative can actually be quite overwhelming. Thankfully, this is not a case of the same stuff being regurgitated as Ryan charges about; does his thing and works everything out in the end. This is the sort of 'action' film whereby romping scores of circumstance and pomp put to sets heavy in the decour of American governmental iconography, as two men bicker and grimace intently over a situation, is discernible as the 'spectacle'. Things have moved on internally, also. Where in "The Hunt for Red October" Ryan was more of a middle man caught in a cross-fire who was charged with investigating and, ultimately, defusing a situation, his role changed dramatically in "Patriot Games", where he found himself an agent at the heart of a field operation. In Phillip Noyce's Clear and Present Danger, he has effectively been promoted to that of chief of operations following some health issues with James Earl Jones' evergreen "M" figure.The film begins where the last one culminated: at sea. An American Navy vessel flags down a luxury yacht which, to their horror, has been invaded by rouge South American Cartel members and has had its rightful owners executed. Where things suddenly become relevant is when this innocent party of murder victims are revealed to have been close friends to the American president, something which launches an investigation where previously these tyrants were getting away with the horrors associated with trafficking; smuggling and murder anyway. The leader of these renegades is a certain Ernesto Escobedo (Sandoval), who's a poor excuse for a Robert Davi villain from a then-not-too-recent Bond film about similar themes. Escobedo is rich; has a huge house; a loving family and enjoys baseball, but from within a certain Cuban aide by the name of Cortez (de Almeida) has his own ideas on Escobedo's empire.The film launches itself into too very distinct cuts of raw material, with on the one hand Ryan's task of leading the Cartel investigation dominating with a very blue, very cold Washington atmosphere as the snow and chilly conditions settle in just as equally cold levels of animosity are met with practically everything Ryan does via his peers. On the other, an elite team of SEAL commandos land in the warmer, greener and brighter South American jungles. The team is mostly made up of insignificant extras, although one such trooper of a sniper class gets his own introduction et al. early on; thus, it is of little surprise that he's the only one left upon which to focus when the mission gets messy later on. One item, of which there can be little doubt, is Harrison Ford's worthiness in the role. There is a moment early on when he walks into his superior's office; there is a smirk, some small talk and a pile of papers outlining the latest situation. Straight away, we're at home with him in the role and he brings a measured assuredness to the part.The film plays out with that invisible confidence films as cryptic as these often have, that nonchalant swagger as it dives into yet another scene drenched in conflict and suspicion; only assuming that you're keeping up but delivering the blows for you even if you haven't quite. It certainly reminds us of how good-a job the team made of The Hunt for Red October, which was equally involving in this regard although always had the benefit of things zeroing in on that lone submarine so things were never going to be able to go too far astray in the first place. To another extent, it highlights just how limp in comparison to "Hunt" Patriot Games was; a revenge film which is made to look fairly bog-standard and unspectacular in comparison in spite of its traversing of the globe and its taking of its characters to some pretty dire emotional places. Perhaps that was the point; Noyce has essentially overcompensated in that regard, lumping onto us more of what we thought we got in "Hunt" that we didn't get any of in "Games" – something that was Noyce's fault in the first place. As a result, I think it finds a comfortable spot in-between the two.