Clear and Present Danger (film): In the present time it is clearly boring

Perhaps I would have a different opinion had i seen this movie back when it first appeared in theaters in 1994 but somehow it managed to be not a part of my life until November 18th, 2019. Unfortunately, I can't really say that this film did much for me and it just seemed rather boring.

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I suppose the message about the US government having tremendous overreach as far as their military intervention for private interests in foreign countries is concerned is a sound one and I applaud movies being made to that end. That is the underlying plot behind this film and it is extremely believable that this is something that the United States has done (and likely still does) especially in the 80's with various covert and sometimes "not so covert" ops in Central America.

I personally hate most aspects of government and this film does a very good job of adding fuel to the proverbial fire if you feel as I do. While this film is a work of fiction, the true stories are just as heinous that have taken place over the years in actual life (where are those films?)

That being said, this film is just not special anymore, and even the clear and present presence of Harrison Ford and one of my personal favorites Willem Dafoe, couldn't change that.

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I'll give the cliff notes on the story since the movie is so old: A bunch of military badasses get sent down to Colombia in order to settle a personal score for the President of the United States under false pretenses. The Colombians they are attacking are not actually attached to any official USA directive and what these commandos are doing is actually illegal.

The soldiers are just doing their jobs and are not questioning the morality or the true objectives of their missions. Then at some point it is determined that they are to be left out to dry and abandoned in the field and the mission is to be erased from the records.

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There are some good scenes and some of the action is great but sadly, this movie has not withstood the test of time, particularly during the action scenes that Harrison Ford is involved in (there aren't many.) The helicopter scenes that he is involved in at the end are embarrassingly poor and don't look even remotely real. I was alive in 1994 and perhaps everything looked this bad back then. I honestly don't remember and to be fair to the producers / directors / even Harrison Ford, it might not be their fault.

_{From the Youtube Movies official channel}

It's based on a Tom Clancy novel so it should come as no surprise that there is a male protagonist who is reasonably high-ranking and discovers some sort of political corruption and works to save the day against said corruption. That is kind of what Tom does. I'm not saying it is bad story, I was just expecting it to be significantly more interesting than it was based on the fact that it was such a magnificently lauded film. I don't think Harrison Ford was noteworthy in this (especially in any fight scenes), I don't think the combat sequences were believable, nor do I think anything other than exactly what you expected to happen in this film... happened.

Therefore, it might just be time talking, or the fact that I have a very low patience threshold for predictable stories these days, but I gotta give this one a very unique thumbs down in that while I am sure it was wonderful in 1994, it just kinda sucks now.

One a scale of "Urgh!" to "Wowsers" I give Clear and Present Danger an overall rating of....

_{Consequently, if you are a fanboi of this film and last saw it in the 90's, I challenge you to rewatch it and see if I am wrong... it really hasn't (unlike Harrison himself) aged very well.}