Review: ‘Clear and Present Danger’ Works Better as a Book than a Movie

“Clear and Present Danger” probably works better as a book than it does a movie. This is the second film based off of the work of novelist Tom Clancy and serves as a sequel to “The Hunt for Red October.” We again follow the adventures of CIA agent Jack Ryan, this time played by Harrison Ford.

The 90s were the age of the suspense/action/thriller film.

This one certainly fills that need. Released in the summer of 1994, it has a big cast, lots of gunfights and explosions, and a host of really cool bad guys. It opens with a lengthy crawl of credits over a boat chase on the open ocean. You get the iconic Paramount logo and fantastic non-hi-def cinematography.

It’s slow but if you enjoy chewing on 90s nostalgia, you won’t mind. The difference between this and “The Hunt for Red October” is the complexity of the plot. Watching “October” I understood what was happening. Here, it’s a total mess.

The players are identified from the onset. We know Harrison Ford is the good guy. He works for CIA director Jim Greer (James Earl Jones) who we also know is good. There’s a drug cartel fronted by great actors Miguel Sandoval and Joaquim de Almeida. We know they are the bad guys.

Willem Dafoe is another CIA agent. I’m still not sure whos side he was on. Donald Moffat is the president and a personal friend of someone the cartel has killed. There are of course good guys that are by the book, and others more corrupt than the cartel. There are so many characters and so many moving parts I was actually confused. It’s a novel crammed into a 141 minute movie. It would be better suited as a miniseries. And despite the aforementioned action sequences, it’s incredibly boring.

I did enjoy the cast.

You’ll recognize many faces from other movies of the era, and that’s always a nice touch. The biggest flop, surprisingly, comes from Harrison Ford. In “The Hunt for Red October” we got a young Alec Baldwin in the role. Ford is obviously a phenomenal movie star. He’s played some of the most iconic characters in cinema history. But he seems a bit old and slow for this type of character. I know Hollywood likes to defy age. But Jack Ryan should be 30, not 50.

“Clear and Present Danger” isn’t that great which was a surprise to me. I came in expecting a standard 90s action film and got a long dull mess of a movie.

“Clear and Present Danger” is currently available in many places if you care to look.

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