Out with Alec Baldwin and in with Harrison Ford -- as CIA analyst Jack Ryan becomes caught up in an international incident again as he lectures in London, throwing so much action at us that we are meant to forget they switched the lead actors on us.

Turns out it doesn't matter much. Ford is of course a talented action/adventure hero, maybe the best ever. It's too bad that this Jack Ryan adventure has less epic-ness than Red October; it's written small, with Ryan caught up in an IRA attack on British bigwigs. After capping off a few of them in an impromptu streetfight, Ryan finds his family hunted down in America. Eventually -- of course -- he has to save them (using his litany of superspy tricks and tactics).

It ain't exactly saving the world, but Patriot Games's earnestness belies its ultimate simplicity and smallness. It isn't until a second viewing that you realize how you've been had a bit -- or maybe, it isn't until The Crying Game through the ultimate spin on the IRA movie so successfully to make any other film on this topic come off as pretentious. Patriot Games is at least a story well-told and impeccably produced. I can stand a little preaching as long as it's well-made. So many IRA films are preachy and ugly, so Patriot Games is actually a bit of a relief.

Sean Bean was actually early in his scowling bad guy phase when Patriot Games came out, a stereotype he's yet to shed. Anne Archer's eyebrows alone are worth half a star; as Ryan's doting wife, she's mopey and hard to relate to. It's a wonder Jacko tried to save her at all.