Not for honour. Not for country. For his wife and child.
Distributed by
Paramount
Cert:
Cat.no: PHE 8018
Running time: 112 minutes
Year: 1992
Pressing: 2000
Region(s): 2, PAL
Chapters: 22 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: 5 languages available
Subtitles: 9 languages available
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
16:9-Enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: Yes
Disc Format: DVD 9
Price: £19.99
Extras: Theatrical Trailer
Director:
Philip Noyce
(Clear and Present Danger, Dead Calm, Heatwave, Patriot Games, The Saint, Sliver)
Producers:
Mace Neufield and Robert Rehme
Screenplay:
W. Peter Iliff and Donald Stewart (based on the novel by Tom Clancy)
Music:
James Horner
Cast:
Jack Ryan: Harrison Ford
Cathy Ryan: Anne Archer
Kevin O'Donnell: Patrick Bergin
Sean Miller: Sean Bean
Sally Ryan: Thora Birch
Lord Holmes: James Fox
Robby: Samuel L. Jackson
Annette: Polly Walker
Admiral Greer: James Earl Jones
Paddy O'Neal: Richard Harris
Owens: Alun Armstrong
Electrician: Tom Watt
Harrison Ford
takes over the main star reins from Alec Baldwin as CIA agent Jack Ryan
in Patriot Games and straight into the action as a holiday in London
goes wrong when terrorists, led by Kevin O'Donnell (Patrick Bergin),
make an attack on the Royal Family starting with Lord Holmes (James Fox)
and his family. Ryan intervenes and Holmes survives, but after Ryan kills
some of the terrorists and others escape, one is captured - Sean Miller
(Sean Bean) - and he vows revenge after his brother was one of the
victims.
As the film progresses, Miller is helped to escape from the police and the
safety of Ryan's wife (Anne Archer) and daughter (Thora Birch)
is seriously threatened, the terrorists touch base in North Africa and the
whole thing culminates in a boat chase and a showdown between Ryan and Miller.
Guess who wins?
Oh - and ex-Eastenders' Lofty (Tom Watt) turns up as an electrician,
although these days he can be found on TalkSport doing a weekday football
phone-in at 4pm, which, for those not in the know, is on 1089 and 1053 MW
or SkyDigital channel 918 in stereo.
The anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen ratio looks better here than in
The Hunt for Red October
with some grain at times, but it's mostly noticeable when the pace is slow
and the picture is neither very bright nor dark.
The average bitrate is 6.58Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 8Mb/s.
English dialogue is available in Dolby Digital 5.1, which sounds at its best
for the scenes I mentioned above while other nationalities aren't so lucky.
The Czechs, Hungarians and Germans are given Dolby Surround, while the Polish
are left with mono.
The soundtrack is, as you'd expect, dominated by Irish traditional tunes and
some Clannad.
Extras :
Just a two-and-a-half minute Theatrical Trailer, but we do get more chapters this
time with 22.
Subtitles are available in English (and hard of hearing), Danish, Dutch,
Finnish, German, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish and Turkish.
The menus are all static and silent.
Patriot Games is still a very good film, but I've seen it way too many
times now and on DVD here, the extras are sparse. Why?
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
