Clear and Present Danger (1994)

It's really amazing just how bad a great many films used to be. The acting is typically staid, apparently intended to replicate the faux-seriousness of CNN. None of the characters really make sense. I found the drug lord to be the most entertaining one of them all. Is this an action film? Then it's a mediocre one. There are some good fight scenes, and the explosions are nifty, but it's all pretty much irrelevant to the story. Is it a political intrigue? I guess, but the story just wasn't that compelling to me. So, somebody made a deal with some rich guy to launder money, then ... murder and war? Whatever. Ultimately, this was an attempt to make a violent parallel to Watergate, which no coincidentally was also as hopelessly impossible to understand. But, back the early 1990s, the media was desperate to relive the Watergate golden days. As unbelievable as the show is, it makes sense in a historical context.

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It was … decent.After "The Hunt for Red October", this is the best Clancy movie so far. This is not saying much though since these movies have either been amazing or awful (yes, I'm talking about the last one).It stays true to the book, the plot development is a bit slow so you need to be patient. As true to a Clancy novel, there is no "one guy saves the world" type of thing here. Good people die, bad people die, neutral people die. The conclusion is bittersweet, more like a pyrrhic victory, which I like.I must admit it, getting a Tom Clancy novel in script form is not easy since his works tend to be very, very complex, with multiple sub-plots. However, they did a great job on this one. It's not a 10 but it is an solid 8.

Well, Harrison Ford (who plays character John Ryan) was a pretty good actor and was in a good spot to be in as Acting Director of Intelligence, this Washington job for him was going to be at a major challenge.It starts off early in the movie when Panamian boaters were smuggling a boat towards probably Columbia when the Coast Guard stopped them and forced them to a search.Then, the President of the United States (played by Donald Moffat) is informed about this and blames the Cali Cartel in Colombia for a growing threat of widespread drug-related violence that could spread to the United States, in his briefing.Then, even though there are verbal warnings about not allowing a guerrilla war involving any of the U.S. military to curb the threat of the Cail Cartel, the wheels of this secret small-scale war start to move in toward such an action. One sniper who is good is picked to join with a U.S. paramilitary army to go on what was supposed to be a secret mission to take some of the teeth out of the Colombia's Cali cartel. Then, someone from the outside goes on...the order is confirmed by Jim Greer (played by James Earl Jones), who has to stay on the outside, fighting a terminal stage of pancreatic cancer.The first part of the guerrilla war shows the paramilitary band being parachuted into Colombian territory, and then taking out a supply plane by explosives, and then, going deeper into the Columbian jungle to take out one of the Cali cartel's drug factories also by explosives. No casualties.But Miguel Sandoval (played by Ernesto Escobedo), a Cali leader, swears revenge for this. After a security convoy with John Ryan inside goes into the heart of Bogota to try to meet up with Ernesto, the convoy is greeted by Cali insurgents who fire gunshots and rocket propelled grenades at the convoy. They take out 2 convoy cars, and when American security personnel in the surviving convoy cars fire back, they do kill about 10 Cali insurgents but most of them are killed by the insurgents, and John Ryan, fortunately, survives the guerrilla attack.When John Ryan comes back to the states, a secret order is placed on the American guerrilla soldiers--to use a cellulose-encased laser guided bomb on one of the mansions who have ties to Escobedo. With spectacular special effects, the bomb does its work demolishing the house, but it was not a surgical strike--scores of people were killed even though the target was a yellow jeep parked in front of the mansion.And you think the movie ends just like that...but then, focus lies on Greer finally succumbing to death by cancer, and you see the funeral scene where he is given full military honors, and about the same time this was happening---the American guerrillas do abort a mission to take out 200 Colombian mercenaries and about to get out, they were still attacked by surprise by them. One dies, several of them are captured as POWs, and the sniper who was supposed to take the enemy out could not shoot any of them, and decides to hide in the bush.John Ryan realizes too late about the surprise attack, and decides to take a big risk to get them out. He goes overseas into the Colombian jungle himself, with help of a Colombian insider, and was able to find the lone sniper almost exactly where the surprise attack happened, and the sniper blames Ryan for causing the paramilitary fiasco, and quickly says to the sniper--"It's my fault!" Then, more wheels are turning as the mission goes into trying to find the POWs, but John Ryan faces several hurdles in trying to rescue them. He has to get through the dangerous Felix Cortez, which he does, with the help of Ernesto Escobedo. Then Ernesto was going to kill off John but was saved by the sniper. Then blaming Ryan for the killing of Ernesto, Felix orders the surviving armed bodyguards to search and kill John, but John and the insider, along with the sniper, was able to free the several prisoners (which were located at the Lindo Coffee Factory), and go up to the roof where an awaiting helicopter was going to move them to safety. All three make it up there even though Felix Cortez and his armed bodyguards were targeting them for death as they ran to the chopper, but the sniper and the insider was able to kill some of the armed gang members off. The sniper was even able to kill the most ruthless Cortez just before the helicopter moved away from danger.Then, back at home, John laments the botched paramilitary mission to the President at the Oval Office and is about to angrily rant at him for not knowing about the scores of American dead for a war that most people should not need to know. Then, with his rant frustrated and not allowed by the President, he decides to testify towards the Senate Oversight Committee about that "lost" paramilitary war to get back some redemption that he can earn--even though he cannot get all of it.