Patriot Games

When CIA Analyst Jack Ryan interferes with an IRA assassination, a renegade faction targets Jack and his family as revenge.

Patriot Games landed as a moderately well-received thriller — solid enough to please audiences but not unanimous among critics. Harrison Ford's grounded, humane performance and director Phillip Noyce's ability to generate genuine tension were the most consistent points of praise, while questions about political simplification and authenticity kept it from being fully embraced. The most memorable controversy wasn't about the film's quality at all, but about whether a Variety critic crossed a line by letting his Irish heritage shape a review he called fascistic and anti-Irish.