Patriot Games – Blu-ray Disc Review
January 29, 2009 – 2:38 PM --- by: James SegarsTags: Anne Archer, Harrison Ford, Jack Ryan, James Earl Jones, Mace Neufeld, Paramount, Philip Noyce, Richard Harris, Sean Bean, Thora Birch, Tom Clancy
has an average rating of 6.9 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
Dolby TrueHD 5.1
are minimal
– 
– 1992
– 116 minutes
– Paramount
– 
This uses 33.9GB for the movie out of 36.5GB total.
Overall Verdict – Great Film — Good Disc
Buy it for $15.99 @ Amazon.com
— Review by: James Segars —
The Movie Itself is directed by Philip Noyce.
Eschewing the epic, politico-action narrative, Patriot Games — the sequel to The Hunt for Red October — favors the personal and intimate side of the hero, Jack Ryan. In a word, the film is about vengeance. We’re introduced to a far older and more experienced Jack Ryan — one that’s since left the CIA. As luck would have it Jack finds himself walking directly into an assassination attempt on the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland at the hands of a radical arm of the Provisional IRA. Naturally, the good-ole-boy that he is, Jack snaps into hero mode and manages to foil the attempt. Unfortunately for Jack and his family, one of the assassins lost his younger brother in the firefight, and he’s none-too-keen on letting Jack live his life in peace. It is this vendetta that provides the backbone for the film, and it does so, quite well.
Patriot Games has long since been my favorite of the Jack Ryan films. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that it was the first one I saw. Then again, it could be that it is one of the more exciting films in the bunch because of the tense vengeful core. Or, maybe it’s because it feels the most visceral and edgy because it is the sole Jack Ryan film to bear the “R” rating. Whatever the reason, I simply love this film. It isn’t without flaws but it is one of the most entertaining films in the collection, alongside The Hunt for Red October.
While McTiernan expertly crafted the action in The Hunt for Red October, Noyce allows the story to revolve and fully envelop Jack Ryan. As a result, the viewer is treated to a far more comprehensive understanding of Clancy’s every-man hero. Compared with The Hunt for Red October, Jack Ryan is no longer a mere narrative device. Through Noyce’s careful direction and Harrison’s performance, Jack Ryan takes on an entirely new level of realism. He’s completely human, heroic, moral, and badass. Of course, the vengeful currents that course throughout the film are universal, and that is yet another reason why the film succeeds on many levels. We all care for our families, and we all seek to defend them from danger, regardless of the form. Here, it just so happens that Ryan’s moral fortitude leads him to trade the life of one man for another — an undeniably gray area — and in effect jeopardize the lives of his wife, daughter and himself. It’s a tricky predicament, no doubt, and the ensuing drama makes for one of the best revenge flicks of recent memory.
Video Quality on this release is 1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte Blu-ray Disc) and presented in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio.
Where to begin? Patriot Games is undoubtedly problematic. It lays claim to some of the most bizarre video noise/artifacts I’ve seen yet. So strange that I don’t quite have a way to describe them. Alas, I’ll try, but I’m hoping that the included screenshots will be able to speak far louder than my words.
The strangest anomaly of all is the vertical striping that gives the image a textured look that I’ve never seen anywhere else (aside from the Jack Ryan titles). The bad news is that whenever present, it completely and utterly destroys the illusion of depth on the screen. It looks so incredibly awful, I actually find it hard to believe that this film made it out of the quality control department. I’m at a real loss to explain the presence of this… thing. The good news is that it isn’t present (or at least not visible) throughout the entire film. Regardless, it poses a clear and present danger to the overall video quality of this presentation. For an example of this, be sure to click on the included screenshot of Jack sitting by the bookcase. Pay close attention to how the pattern moves from the background onto his forehead. That’s not supposed to be there. What’s worse is that it’s even visible on my small laptop monitor, which goes without saying that it looked atrocious on my 104″ projection screen via my 1080p Projector.
My second largest complaint is that the film grain throughout has an incredibly artificial feel to it. If you pay close attention, it doesn’t always fluctuate, and many times it simply remains static (in a fixed place) irrespective of the camera movement or shot duration. This is not natural either. Not in the least bit. Grain is organic. It moves and it has a distinct variance depending on a number of cinematographic decisions/factors. Again, the good news is that this bizarre anomaly doesn’t plague the entire film, but it does enough damage to drop the overall video quality even further.
All of the major complaints aside, you might be surprised to hear that I actually enjoyed the presentation nonetheless, in spite of the defects. The overall image presentation was a marked improvement over my DVD copy of the film. Fine object detail is noticeably better, and image stability, saturation and black levels all receive a much appreciated improvement. All things considered, I don’t believe that this disc deserves any less than a “3-Star Rating” for overall video quality. Yes, the artifacts/noise are annoying, but I’m not positive that the average consumer would mind, or even notice.
Even still, the ardent home theater enthusiast will take offense, and with that said, I am politely asking the folks at Paramount to get to the bottom of this issue and sort it out. In a perfect world we would see an exchange program — like Sony’s re-issue for The Fifth Element — for this disc, but it is unlikely. It isn’t nearly as bad as the original Fifth Element release — just to be clear on that — and so I doubt we’ll see a disc swap program. At the very best, perhaps we’ll see a proper restoration/remaster double dip in the future. I’m not wild about double dips, but it would be worth it to see all of these oddities done away with.
Audio Quality on this release is in Dolby TrueHD 5.1.
Where the video was plagued with a slew of issues, the included TrueHD track is incredibly solid. In fact, I have very few complaints. Personally, I find it very difficult to dock the track points when it is clearly the fault of the original sound design that contributes to any deficiencies or limitations. We’re often very quick as consumers and home theater purists to find fault in film soundtracks that were created before digital sound, and 5.1/7.1 mixes were the norm. When Patriot Games was released in theaters, digital sound (DTS, SDDS) didn’t exist, and where there might not have been notable audible deficiencies then, we’re now privy to lossless audio that is transparent to the studio masters. In other words, it’s easy for us to pick and pull at aged sound design because it doesn’t live up to modern standards of excellence.
With that in mind, Patriot Games sounds a bit tamer than you might expect (assuming you don’t play all of your films at DD reference level) with regard to LFE response and impact. Surround usage and imaging ranges from good to adequate, but doesn’t compare to the best soundscapes found on Blu-ray. Even still, the audio quality is as close to reference material as I can imagine.
While the mix is presented faithfully, the real star here is the score by, James Horner. I’ve been a fan of this score ever since the first time I heard it, and if I remember correctly, it was one of the first CD’s I ever bought — along with the soundtrack to Jurassic Park. The film’s sound design might not have aged gracefully, but Horner’s score sounds better than ever. In fact, I’d go far as to say that it sounds immaculate. If you consider yourself a fan of the score, I think it might be worth the purchase to enjoy the score in all of its lossless/reference quality glory. Yes, I’m gushing, but I really do love this score, and it was a real treat for me to revisit it on Blu-ray, in its rarest form.
All in all, this disc snags a “3.5 Star Rating” for overall audio quality. It’s certainly above average, but it’s not quite worthy of four stars. Fans will certainly be pleased.
Bonus Materials are presented in 480i Standard Definition (except where noted otherwise) with the MPEG-2 codec.
- “PATRIOT GAMES UP CLOSE — Cast & Crew Interviews Featurette” (24 minutes) – I enjoyed hearing Noyce and the cast talk about the production process here. Unfortunately, the feature doesn’t delve into much detail, and it left me wishing that Noyce had lent his voice to a commentary track, but none is included on the disc.
- “Theatrical Trailer” HD
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
Screenshots:
NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.
