Clear and Present Danger (1994)

Directed by Phillip Noyce. Starring Harrison Ford, Willem Dafoe, Joaquim de Almeida, Henry Czerny, Donald Moffat, Harris Yulin, James Earl Jones, Miguel Sandoval, Anne Archer, Ann Magnuson, Raymond Cruz, Tim Grimm, Greg Germann, Benjamin Bratt. [PG-13]

Ford’s second go-around as Jack Ryan puts him in a seat of influence (replacing his dying mentor) and hot water when the double-dealing National Security Advisor (Yulin) and a slimy CIA deputy director (Czerny) engage in illicit operations against a Colombian drug cartel. Complex plotting gives short shrift to the characters, which are developed as pawns for political points of view and the military apparatus; this film’s Jack Ryan is something of a generic “boy scout” (as he’s described more than once by his opponents), capable of failure or miscalculation only when he’s deprived of information and undercut by snakes disguised as allies. Aside from the rote action climax, though (which feels lifted from an 80s Chuck Norris military rescue vehicle), it’s still a well-paced and engaging spy story, another successful blend of the high-tech and the handheld when it comes to generating excitement. Ford would be replaced by Ben Affleck for the next Jack Ryan adventure, 2002’s Sum of All Fears.

72/100