The Devil's Own (released in 1997) - starring Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt

This movie directed by Alan Pakula was released in 1988, starring Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, Julia stiles, Natascha McElhone and Treat Williams.
Frank McGuire, as an eight year old Irish boy witnesses the murder of his father by English sympathizers. This incident hardens him and makes him a IRA operative. After a tense gun battle with the British Troops, Frank escapes to a safe house hotly pursued by Harry Sloan, a British Agent. Frank and Martin Macduff, another IRA operative plan to acquire surface to air missiles and Frank travels to New York to get them. Here he meets a Irish sympathizer judge Peter Fitzsimmons who puts him in touch with Tom O'Meara. Tom is a police officer and welcomes Frank with out knowing his antecedents. Frank, working under his alias Rory contacts the arms smuggler Burke who agrees to supply him with the missiles.
Frankie meets Peter Fitzsimmons who provide him with millions of dollars which he hides in Tom's house. He also meets Megan, Fitzsimmon's nanny who is attracted to him. Mega agrees to help him in his endeavors. Tom and his partner Eddie have problems of their own regarding their work. Slowly a friendship develops between Frank and Tom. It deepens when Frank helps to beat back masked intruders who threaten Tom and his wife Sheila. Frank checks up on his money and feels guilty of his treachery.



Meanwhile the crafty Burke kidnaps Sean, Frank's fellow operative and holds him for ransom. Frank promises to pay him. Meanwhile Tom has found the money and questions Frank about the presence of such large amount of cash. Frank tells him about the kidnapping, but avoids mentioning the terrorism angle. Still Tom arrest Frank with the help of Eddie. When they are on the way to the Police station, Frank escapes, by knocking out Tom and kills Eddie during flight. He reaches Burke who has already killed Sean and tries to rob him off the cash. But Frank kills him and plans to escape with the missiles in the boat.
Meanwhile Tom questioned by his superiors and Harry Sloan comes to the starling realization that Frank is a wanted IRA terrorist. He plans to capture him to avenge Eddie's death. He traces Frank to Megan and forces her to reveal his where abouts. As Frank is planning to leave with the boat Tom reaches him and a fierce gun battle ensures. Tom is injured and Frank emerges holding him at gun point. But Tom fatally shoots him and makes his way home.
This movie was a moderate commercial success and has nothing new in the plot. Harrison Ford delivers his time and tested police cop routine and Brad Pitt is excellent as young Frank. The premise of the story is very sympathetic to the cause of the terrorist and I feel it betrays the day to day realities. It is fine for an action film buff who is intent on filling up his day. But better films have been made on the same subject. See it if you must, pass it if you can.

Clear and Present Danger (1994) - Starring Harrison Ford and Anne Archer, a fight against the drug scene

This movie is adapted from the book by Tom Clancy and is a sequel to the hit patriotic Games. Directed by Phillip Noyce it starts Harrison Ford, Ann Archer, and Henry Czerny. It deals with the struggle of Jack Ryan, the US intelligence chief against the Columbian drug cartels.
Jack Ryan is appointed as the Deputy Director (Intelligence) after his boss is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In the mean time, one of the President's close friends are found murdered by the Deli drug cartel of Columbia. The President considers the drug cartels to be of clear and present danger to the United States and asks the security advisor to bring down the cartels. Cutter, the security advisor selects Jack to head the operations and he is presented with the task of getting congressional approval. Jack gets the approval and the funds required for the operation provided no troops and black ops are used in that country.
Cutter to keep jack out of the loop engages the CIA deputy director Ritter for a parallel operations. Ritter and a secret field operative Clark under take the mission and travel to Columbia to disarm the drug cartels.



The king pin of one of the gangs Ernesto Escobedo looses 600 million dollars due to the freezing of his assets. He deputes Felix Cortex his intelligence chief to sort out the problem. Cortex acts as a romantic interest to Moira Wolfson the secretary of FBI director Emil Jacobs and gets the inside information about Ritter's operations. Cortex has an hidden agenda, as to head the drug cartels himself. To fulfill his ambitions he assassinates Emil Jacobs in a car bomb accident in which only Jack Ryan survives. An enraged United States orders the bombing of the Cartels. In this operation many drug lords and innocent men and women are massacred. Cutter is dismayed but keeps Jack off the information.
Jack and Cortex find out that the the US Government had ordered the killings. Cortex inks a deal with Cutter, to cut down the US operation in return for the lesser degree of drug shipments to the US. He also promises that the drug cartels will give an impression of the US wining the drug war to dupe the public. Cutter agrees and ask Ritter to delete the files.
Jack hacks in to Ritter's files and confronts him about the duplicity. Ritter taunts him saying that he has permission to act from the President himself and Jack would be responsible for all his actions, as he had asked for funding from the Congress. In the mean time the foot soldiers lead by John Clark are ambushed and Jack leaves to save them. He convinces Clark and the soldiers about Ritter's cunning and they decide to unmask him.
Jack provided Escobedo with Cortez's activities and the enraged Escobedo orders his execution. Cortex kills Escobedo and is in turn killed by Clark's men. Ryan and co escape from Columbia with the prisoners and reach the States. Jack confronts the President about his culpability and is offered favors. A disgusted Jack declines and leaves the President to depose before a congressional committee. This was a big box office success and was followed by the prequel Sum Of All Fears in 2002. A good movie for all action buff's.

Patriot Games (released in 1992) - starring Harrison Ford and Anne Archer in a story by Tom Clancy about Jack Ryan and terrorists

Patriot games is a movie released in 1992 adapted from a book of the same name by Tom Clancy. It starred Harrison Ford, Ann Archer and Sean Bean in pivotal roles. Jack Ryan (Ford) is a retired CIA agent who is on vacation to London. He witnesses an assassination attempt on Lord William Homes, the British Secretary of State for northern Ireland. Ryan intervenes to foil the assassination attempt and kills one of the terrorists. He is wounded in the process, but is a hero who earns the accolades for his bravery. He also testifies against Sean Miller, the apprehended terrorist part of the Ulster Liberation Army or ULA who is then sent to jail. Ford is awarded the knighthood for his good deeds and returns to USA. He returns to his mundane life and puts all the excitement behind him.
Sean Miller the captured terrorist is the brother of the slain one (Patrick Miller) and want revenge. While transferring him to another prison the ULA ambush the convoy, kill all the police officers and rescue Miller. Miller and his group then escape to North Africa. Seeking revenge the group follows Jack Ryan to America. Ryan is unaware of these intentions and barely survives an attempt on his life outside the United States Naval Academy. Miller attacks then his wife and daughter while driving and they suffer a horrendous crash. Ryan thus incensed re-joins the CIA and attempt to counter Miller.



Ryan concludes that Miller is hiding with a North African Warlord and send a SAS team to eliminate him. He sends in a SAS team to eliminate the terrorists and watches the slaughter through a satellite feed. He thinks that Sean is among the killed. But unknown to Ryan, Miller and his companions have escaped. Miller reaches the United states and locates Ryan's house. Lord Holmes reaches Ryan's house to present him with the KVCO and is ambushed by Miller. Jack Ryan leads his family and Holmes to safety but many troopers are killed.
Miller, consumed with the feelings of revenge try to follow Ryan. His companions disgusted with his actions persuade him to back off. Miller shoots them and pursues Ryan. After a game of cat and mouse Miller and Ryan face off each other. In a hand to hand fight Miller plunges in to a boat and is killed in the subsequent explosion. Ryan returns to his work and his family who await a new tomorrow and a baby.
The plot of the movie was so considerably different from that of the book that the author, Tom Clancy distanced himself from the film. However it was one of the top grosser's of that year and still continues to be a popular action movie choice. The Prequel of the movie, The Hunt For Red October starring Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan was made. Later the role was re-prised by Harrison Ford as Baldwin was unavailable. This was followed by the sequel Clear and Present danger starring Harrison Ford. This is a must for Action movie fans and followers of Harrison Ford.

Rambo: Not just a violent movie

The first version of the Rambo series, called First Blood (Rambo) was released in 1982, and is now considered a good hit. It is a pretty violent movie, with one killing, gun shots, other ways of hurting people, and so on, and is fairly raw in the way that emotions are presented, but the movie overall is pretty impressive. It was also a big hit, costing around $14 million to make, and earning more than $125 million. The movie spawned 2 sequels, and made Stallone into a big star.
First Blood was based on a novel written by David Morrell in 1972 about a Vietnam veteran who has the war imprinted into his psyche, and has developed a number of skills not suitable for living in society. A war veteran of a war that was not liked by a significant section of society would face a lot of hatred, and coupled with the pain and emotional distress suffered during the war, could easily turn back into a killer even in a normal society.
The story of the movie has certain twists and warts, for example, the mistreatment of a detainee in a police station is not all that common. However, this is a fairly simple story. John Rambo is a Green Beret, a special soldier dedicated to special operations, and also part of a team with a low survival ratio because of their nature of missions. They are trained to be elite soldiers, being able to survive in the wild, kill using different ways, and so on.
John is now back in the US, searching for a friend in Washington state. He finds out that this friend, the last surviving member of his unit, died of cancer. He enters a town of Hope, but the sheriff, Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) is not impressed by his looks and wants to run him out of the town, saying that they do not like drifters. He drops him out of the city limits. John returns to the town, and is immediately arrested by Teasle for vagrancy and for carrying a concealed weapon.
In the jail, John has a bad time. He is traumatised by one of the sheriff's deputies, and they they want to clean him up for the judge. The overall treatment reminds John of his treatment at the hands of the North Vietnamese, and the sight of a razor pushes him over the edge. He manages to make his way out of the jail after beating up a lot of the officers, and is then chased by Teasle. This chase extends the full length of the movie. He first steals a motor cycle, and is pursued by Teasle in a car. Eventually, they get inside the jungle, and he is being chased by dogs.
Trying to elude them, he is spotted on a cliff drop, and is being threatened by the deputy with rifle on a helicopter. He drops of the cliff, into trees, but eventually manages to throw a rock at the copter, causing the deputy to fall down to his death. The sheriff is mad, and takes his team into the woods to chase Rambo, but this is where Rambo is able to exhibit his special skills, as he disables them one by one. The sheriff calls in the National Guard, and this also brings in Rambo's former colonel, who advises the sheriff to let it be, they will be able to catch Rambo later much more easily; good advice, not accepted
The National Guard find Rambo in a case face, and they fire at him with a rocket launcher. He is assumed to be dead, but is not. He is now going to take the fight back to the sheriff. Stealing a army truck from the National Guard, he re-enters the town, and proceeds to blow up a number of things. He finally corners the sheriff, but is stopped from killing him by his colonel (Richard Crenna). After a dialog where there is an outpouring of emotions from Rambo at his unit's death, the condemnation of the soldiers by society, and so on, he surrenders.

Bruce Willis: Die Hard

What an action movie. This is an adrenaline packed movie, of the single fighter kind of profile. The movie, released in 1988, did wonders for the career of Bruce Willis and sparked off 2 more re-runs (which were also adrenaline packed). The other good point of this movie is that it really does not try to deliver too many messages, and concentrates on giving its viewers the action that they desire.
Storyline again is simple. Bruce Willis is a New York cop John McClane, who goes to Los Angeles to spend Christmas with his family (and estranged wife). She is an executive with the Nakatomi group, and is in the Nakatomi high-rise towers for an official Christmas party. His reunion does not go too well, and they have another tiff.
At this time, when he is sitting in a separate room, terrorists led by Alan Rickman invade the building and take it over. They take over communications, the front lobby and herd all the hostages to a common point. They are actually thieves on a grand scale, attempting to rob the bearer bonds kept in the building's security vaults.
He escapes their hostage taking, and starts to fight back. This includes attempting to call the police, who don't exactly take him seriously. To get the attention of the lone officer who responds, he drops the body of one of the terrorists onto the officer's car, and this brings the whole police force into the area.
In the meantime, the terrorists have killed hostages who have not cooperated with them, and are slowly bypassing the security procedures of the large vault in the building. John, injured, is still fighting the terrorists where he can. Due to a local reporter, the terrorists realize that they have John's wife as one of the hostages and take her with them.
There are some major battle scenes where the terrorists are so well prepared that they can beat whatever force the local police can throw against them. Towards the end, John realizes that they are going to blow up the roof with the hostages on them, and tries to scare them off the roof. The police helicopter thinks he is a bad guy and fire on him, forcing him off the roof. When faced with his wife as a hostage, he tricks and shoots the gang members. The movie ends with him, being a beaten and bloodied person, but victorious, having thrown Alan Rickman off the building.
This is a great movie, for pure, well-directed action. If you are looking for a great story line, or a lot of emotion, this movie is not for you.