My Life In Movies Flashes Before My Eyes:1992 Got Complicated: Patriot Games & Wayne's World

So, there has been a delay for which I apologize. You see, the year 1992 happened and it has been the most difficult year thus far. This year contains four personal favorites: Patriot Games, Wayne's World, The Last of the Mohicans and The Bodyguard, which I am a little ashamed to admit to. Okay, so that one was out. Then I pared away The Last of the Mohicans. Then I was still left with Patriot Games and Wayne's World.


So, Patriot Games is once again the story of Jack Ryan, this time played by Harrison Ford. He's on vacation in London when he thwarts an assassination attempt on the life of a member of the royal family led by Sean Bean and Polly Walker, more commonly known as Atia of the Julii from Rome. Other people miss Rome, right? It's not just me? Anyway, Harrison kills Sean's brother in the process and Sean decides to take revenge following him back to America.

Here is in my mind one of the greatest scenes in Patriot Games as Jack Ryan watches the operation he instigated carried out via satellite. Sorry about the quality.


I mean, this is the movie where I learned not to trust Sean Bean and so far that's paid off. In GoldenEye, in Lord of the Rings, I hear on Game of Thrones he may not be evil, but he's dead or something? I don't have HBO right now. It also features the stellar supporting cast with James Earl Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, Anne Archer and Richard Harris. Also, the final sequence is just great and tense and everything. It is everything an action film and a thriller should be.

Wayne's World is of course, the film based on the long running SNL sketch with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, where they play Wayne and Garth and pursue their dream of getting to host their cable access show for money. It of course features the iconic scene featuring Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody:


I mean, how can you not be happy after that? I love everything about this movie, the way Wayne and Garth talk to the camera, Tia Carrere's cover of Ballroom Blitz, Ed O'Neill's crazy doughnut store manager, the way Wayne and Garth react when they meet Alice Cooper, Alice Cooper lecturing on the history of Milwaukee...


The three endings. The way the guy in the guitar shop tells Wayne "No Stairway." Robe Lowe's entire part. It's a film that doesn't fire for any particular reason, but manages to fire on all cylinders, it doesn't really have a dull part in it.

So, here we are, 1992 and I can't pick a film. So, Patriot Games or Wayne's World? Your opinions, please.

Again, am I the only one who misses Rome and especially Atia?

My Life In Movies Flashes Before My Eyes: The Hunt for Red October, 1990

This is seriously one of my favorite movies. I love it, I feel compelled to watch it in its entirety whenever it pops up on TV. I have tried to learn the Soviet National Anthem because of it and I have only made it through the first few lines. Probably something about not speaking Russian, not reading the Cyrillic alphabet and not being able to find a phonetic translation of it anywhere. The loss of the DVD to this film results in panic on my part and eventually led to my buying it on Amazon, where I wouldn't lose it. It is in my opinion the greatest submarine film ever made.

The film is directed by John McTiernan and is a taut thriller about a Soviet naval captain, Marko Ramius, played by Sean Connery who decides to defect with a new submarine that can run almost silently. Trouble is, the whole of the soviet and American navies and the North Atlantic are between him and his goal. The only man who's worked this out is Jack Ryan, played in this film by Alec Baldwin, who does a really good job with this. While I love Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan, I can't picture anyone but Baldwin in this film. The cast is rounded out with the greatest group of actors. Sam Neill is Ramius' first officer, Tim Curry is the Soviet physician who is hopelessly befuddled by the events of the film. On the American side, we have James Earl Jones as Ryan's CIA boss. Scott Glenn plays Bart Mancuso, the captain of the submarine that finds the Red October and Courtney B. Vance is great as his eccentric, but skilled Sonar technician. In there you also have Fred Thompson, Stellan Skarsgard and Gates McFadden (Doctor Crusher) as Ryan's wife. It is so cool.

Everything about this movie is great. The actors. The intertwining of Ryan and Ramius' stories as the plot heightens. The tension that still exists every time I watch it even though I clearly know what's going to happen. The music is great, heavily influenced by Soviet music. They manage to keep the look of the film dynamic even though about eighty percent of it takes place inside a boat. And they do something different with the language issue. Usually when you watch a movie like this, what you get is one cast speaking with Russian accents (I'm looking at you K-19). In this film, we start out with the actors speaking Russian and through the use of a character reading a passage from a book, they switch to English. When the Soviets meet up with the Americans, they speak Russian again. It's brilliant. I also love the way that no scene is one dimensional and usually have some layer of humor with them. I particularly love the scenes in the White House with the Soviet ambassador as they play a chess game of diplomacy.

Part of the brilliance of this film is in keeping the audience out of the loop on the conclusion and not telling us anything, letting us go along for the ride. apparently, studios had a hard time imagining the original Tom Clancy novel as a film, they thought it would be too complicated for audiences to figure out. Luckily, somebody at Paramount understood its potential. I also love the authenticity of the film, with real naval officers playing small parts and even Scott Glenn spent some time on a submarine learning how to command from a real naval captain. Also, I love the way this film isn't just a thriller, it involves you emotionally in the characters. The finale of this film is always such an intense ride for me, taking you from moments of humor to tears, all the while maintaining the intensity you need to deliver an ending that's worthy of the rest of this film.

Okay, comments, what is the greatest submarine film of all time if not this one? And did that film have its own video game? Also, does it seem short-sighted of the Soviets to have given James Bond his own submarine?