There are some issues with the film — it dumbed down Clancy’s book to such an extent that the author distanced himself from the production — but Ford is terrific.

| Feb 1, 2024

Patriot Games crackles with tension.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 6, 2023

There's not an ounce of plausibility to be found anywhere in the plot, or among its cast of characters, but it does have its moments. Australian director Phillip Noyce is a wild man with action scenes, and Ford remains [appealing].

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 6, 2023

Despite a few oddities, Patriot Games is well done, but you can't figure out why it was done... The filmmakers and actors are pros, but this is the original thing they have to say: "A man whose family is in danger will take strong steps to protect it."

| Jun 6, 2023

The screenplay, by W. Peter Iliff and Donald Stewart, eliminates most of Clancy's journalistic focus, and Noyce's primitive direction reduces the material even further, to the kind of simplistic melodrama most notoriously embodied by [Death Wish].

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 6, 2023

Patriot Games delivers the best possible version of a tale that boils down to nothing but gamesmanship, as its title implies.

| Jun 6, 2023

Patriot Games is peppier than the boring glub-glub-glubbing of The Hunt for Red October. But despite Ford's self-deprecating charm, it's disappointingly ordinary, even by right-wing standards.

| Jun 6, 2023

There is something abstract and distant about Patriot Games. But there are at least four exciting preliminary confrontations... Along with the expert binding of Ford's performance, these are the juicy raisins in an otherwise blandish pudding.

| Jun 6, 2023

A perfectly adequate action thriller that neither disappoints nor exhilarates. If it doesn't exactly crackle with energy, it lets off a good buzz now and again, and depending on your mood, it may seem churlish to ask for more than that.

| Jun 6, 2023

In the end, this is an enjoyable, mildly baffling film in which there is a serious mismatch between the craftsmanship with which it has been fashioned and the superficiality of its story and characterization.

| Jun 6, 2023

Noyce certainly knows how to crank up the action. Provided you don't think too hard and simply go with the flow of the action, this is a movie that delivers the adrenalin in satisfying doses.

| Jun 6, 2023

Patriot is not going to win Best Picture, but as action thrillers go, it is more than serviceable. It's good-looking, it's got small details to savor, and it's fun.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 6, 2023

Noyce stages these sequences marvelously, shaping the action as if he were molding a kinetic sculpture.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 6, 2023

The movie delivers enough thrills to satisfy all but the most hard-core adrenalin addicts. And several touches, especially the lead performance of Harrison Ford, elevate this film above the standard summer suspense offerings.

| Jun 6, 2023

Strip away the gloss that a big budget buys, and what you have here is the basic revenge drama that Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris have been making and taking to the bank for years.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 6, 2023

In Patriot Games the plot is threadbare and Harrison Ford's prolific serial-hero career to date now lends a sense of déjà vu to this latest parade of winks, nods and startled reaction shots.

| Jun 6, 2023

Best of all is Mr. Ford, the Thinking Person's Action Hero... He's this "Games'" most Valuable Player. By a mile.

| Jun 6, 2023

Patriot Games has a commonplace feel, a going-through-the-motions attitude that makes the story not only forgettable but also unexciting, even while the suspense is supposed to be building.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Jun 6, 2023

Patriot Games, a tale of terrorism in our times that hits the target with more impact than most of its kind, has the formula ingredients.

| Jun 6, 2023

Patriot Games is an overlong, overwrought action movie without much action. Its depiction of international anti-terrorism is insulting to the intelligence, and even Harrison Ford can't bring much life to a dull movie.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 6, 2023