PATRIOT GAMES (1992)

Retired from the C.I.A. agent Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) is innocently walking down the sidewalk in London with his wife (Anne Archer) and young daughter (Thora Birch) when he gets a front row seat to a terrorist attack on a member of the Royal Family.  Ford ends up killing the main terrorist's little brother, so now the bad guy (Sean Bean) swears revenge.  Next thing you know, Bean has followed Ford to America and attacks his family.  This...means...war!

PATRIOT GAMES is a fun, action-packed international thriller.  You got a terrorist attack in England, murders in Ireland, a convey attacked in England, the British SAS taking on a terrorist camp in Africa, multiple attacks in America. Some people might be a little taken back by Ford's replacement of Alec Baldwin in the role of Jack Ryan, but it didn't bother me in the least.  I actually like Ford better, so it was all good.  I also enjoyed seeing a young Sean Bean as a bad guy.  He was only in "Game of Thrones" as Eddard Stark for a short time, but he captured the sadness so well that he's forever identified in my mind as Eddard.

Quick pace, exciting fights and shoot outs, great acting, Atia from "Rome", engaging story, J. E. Freeman, James Earl Jones, Harrison Ford saying "Tits.", explosions, cars getting fucked up.  PATRIOT GAMES is a satisfying continuation to the cinematic adventures of Jack Ryan.

Part 1 -The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Part 3 - Clear and Present Danger (1994)
Reboot 1 - The Sum of All Fears (2002)
Reboot 2 - Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (2008)

Hmmm.  I'm a little torn on this one.  On the one hand the story is interesting (at least at the beginning) and the action is fun, but then as it goes on, things start to fall apart and you got some dude swinging through the tree with a bunch of computer-generated monkeys!

1957.  Indy is kidnapped by some evil Russians and brought to a gigantic government warehouse in the Nevada desert.  Stuff happens and next thing you know Indy's involved with a nuclear explosion!  Once back at his teaching job, he learns from a Marlon Brando impersonator that there's some shenanigans going on with a crystal skull in Peru.  Indy goes to investigate.  All kinds of crap happens: Indians, lens flares, spaceships, floods, computer-generated ants, lens flares, sword fighting, bad accents, a graveyard, motorcycle chase, car chase, lens flares, auto-writing, dry quicksand.

I understand that the filmmakers were going for a kinda 50's sci-fi feel, but it didn't really settle all that well with me.  Fun first half, but it loses steam towards the end.  Worth watching for sure, but my least favorite of the series, so far.

Part 1 - Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Part 2 (prequel) - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Part 3 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (2008)