Clear and Present Danger (1994, PG-13)

 Clear and Present Danger, the third entry in the Jack Ryan film series, works just as well as an action film as it does a thriller.  With that said, Clear and Present Danger is pretty good movie, though not as good as the Hunt for Red October, but still marginally superior to Patriot Games, the second installment.  And yes, it's a lot better then the prequel film, the Sum of all Fears.

Harrison Ford stars as the protagonist, Jack Ryan.  When Ryan's superior and mentor, James Greer (James Earl Jones) is struck down by cancer, Ryan takes control of the CIA.  It doesn't take him long to find out that he's being used by his colleagues to conduct a war against Columbia drug lords.  Eventually, the CIA strikes a deal with the drug lords, and subsequently cut off support to army special forces in the Columbian jungles.  It's up to Ryan and fellow CIA Field Operative John Clark (Willem Dafoe), to go in together into Columbia to find the soldiers now fighting a hopeless battle against overwhelming Columbian military forces.

Clear and Present Danger ends up being a movie about honor, as Jack Ryan finds out.  By the end of the movie, he's in the White House talking to the President of the United States. The President tells him that Ryan will be used as a scapegoat for the chaos in Columbia if Ryan doesn't follow with what the President says.  Ryan defies this by bluntly telling the President that he will make a testimony to Congress even if it severely damages or even end his career.  Now there's a determined, cool CIA man for you.

I was entertained with Clear and Present Danger.  It's intense, has enough action sequences to please audiences, etc.  Directed by Phillip Noyce, Clear and Present Danger doesn't come in as the hard hitting action-thriller of the year like it could have.  Even so, I thought it was a worth able entry in the Jack Ryan film series, and for those people who like action-thrillers, this one is definitely worth a look.

                                             ****/5