Tom Clancy Week: Op Center

Welcome back ladies and gents to Day 5 of Tom Clancy Week.  No, we will not be reviewing the Sum of All Fears due to I have not found a decent copy of it so we will hit another TV movie of excellent portrayal with a top notch crew so get to analyzing, predict the next move and get ready to thwart the terrorist acts.  This is Op-Center.

 

Now move the coffee table!!

We can’t let the spoilers win!

As we all know the first day of the job can be hectic but nothing compares to Paul Hood’s (Harry Hamlin of Clash of the Titans, L.A. Law, Ink, Movie Stars, Veronica Mars and Mad Men) first day.  Nuclear missiles have been hijacked from the former Soviet Republic by a former KGB leaving little to no trace.  With more than a few attached to the body count and 20 hours behind the clock our crew is deeply concerned about what will be.

As head of the National Crisis Management Center or Op-Center, an organization that handles both domestic and international crises Hood is required to report to the President himself which he jokingly calls Op-Center an information clearing house with SWAT capacity. With units comprised with British SAS, Russian Spetnaz and US Green Berets, Navy SEALS and Rangers, these individuals tackle the problem head on.  As a post-Cold War operation based on statistics and simulations is deemed a waste of tax payers money attempts to point out its worth when the crisis is made known.

The secret meet and greet of Hollywood pretty boys.

Our terrorists/entrepreneurs seem to be selling said warheads on the black market to even more morally corrupt individuals in the Middle East.  Despite the best efforts of the military and joint intelligence teams trying to block the cargo shipping, the terrifying tonnage is in motion.

Hood becomes paranoid about how easily these KG used to Bs have been able to thwart them at every turn and is convinced that there is a leak of information.   At first suspects his teammates but brushes that thought far from his mind.  He comes to the conclusion that the leak has originated in the White House.    Can the threat of a nuclear holocaust be halted, the villains responsible jailed and puppies’ tummies rubbed?

Well now we are at the part where I put my two cents worth in.  This film in question is actually a four hour mini-series that allows for more for more character and plot exposition giving the story a more rounded view of the scope of the story.  The main characters are fairly flushed out and the tension is well sorted.  I do have a few complaints on how easily our intelligence agents come to their results.  It felt a bit too child’s play for them to crunch the numbers; hit the contacts and draw conclusions but again I know next to nothing about spy work.  You know with the exception of time zones and SAT calls, being able to organize a full military team in a matter of hours on set mission may be out of my area of expertise.  

Day of Our Lives fans will be happy to see Deidre Hall (Dr. Marlena Evans) playing a strong and capable woman that has NOT been possessed by the Devil nor been dropped into about 10 comas.  Also the VHS released version is only 114 minutes and does not cover HALF of what it should.  The only version to view is the 170 minute version which gives the full view of the story.

Required reading prior the Bush Administration.

Tom Clancy Week: NetForce

Welcome back avid readers to Day 4 of Tom Clancy Week.  Because of this man 20 years of gaming via computer and console systems thus making several FPS fans happy as could be with titles such as: Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, EndWar and H.A.W.X. to name a few.  So the small screen was the next logical choice and kids we have a decent TV Movie on our hands.  So shoo the dog off the couch, plunk your feet on the ottoman and have a healthy snack.  This is Netforce.

You ain't payin me enough for this role.

Jay Gridley: Good Morning Spoilers!!!

Set in the far away time of THE YEAR 2005!!!...A new division of the FBI has been dubbed NetForce, a investigations team monitoring the policies and practices of the Internet as well as keeps tabs on computer crime of any sort.   Alex Michaels (Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap, Star Trek: Enterprise, The Informant!, Chuck and Men of a Certain Age) has been named Deputy Director of NetForce following succession of his boss and mentor Steve Day (Kris Kristofferson of Convoy, Songwriter, Stagecoach, Blade and Bloodworth) who was assassinated for an ongoing investigation. 

Cable companies...OF THE FUTURE!!!

As our NetForce begins to dig into Day’s findings there seem to be more than a fair share of clues that Web pioneer and owner of Januscorp Will Stiles (Judge Reinhold of Fast Time at Ridgemont High, Beverly Hills Cop, Vice Versa, Zandalee and The Santa Clause) may have been the cause.  Unbeknownst to our valiant computer crew, Stiles has developed a web browser that allows him to bypass all forms of encryption and hack into any computer in the world and gain complete and utter control of the Internet.

Michaels and his team on hot on the case looking for Stiles and looking forward to uploading a little justice.

Take that, Bill Gates!!

Okay, yes this is the part where I am going to nitpick just a bit.   The events around the technology are a bit laughable in how the internet was completely hooked to every major system…with no redundancy or safety protrocols and heck why have anyone monitor those systems?  For crying out loud Net Nanny has better security than this fictious world.  Lines like “Phew the Internet is still intact!” made me grind my teeth.   Veteran character actor Brian Dennehy’s performance seemed flaccid and ineffectual to Bakula’s take charge attitude.

The Lex Luthor wannabe portrayal that Reinhold is trying to pan off on us of the evil billionaire trying to take over the world feels made for cartoon rather than TV and boy oh boy they sure skimped on the technical aspect and most action sequences revolve around the computer room…but no proper jargon or explanation. 

Coach slugs and deeply devoted Tom Clancy fans were probably ecstatic with this rather impressive cast of characters but most felt like they were foisted on us.  The effects were fair and incidental music was spot on…boy it has come to this.  Main problem was all these secondary characters tossed in a large embankment of computers and cubicles to I guess look busy and on the job when they didn’t get any real development or characterization.  Just a name on a plastic badge getting the cliché, “Dammit, Johnson we need everyone on top of this,” speech. 

In case you forgot the title of the TV movie.

Tom Clancy Week: Clear and Present Danger

How do avid readers and welcome back for Day 3 of Tom Clancy Week.  You might be wondering if I have enough films for this week and well yes that would be correct.  There all nerves are calmed.  Shh, shh, shhh…  Moving right along I think it is time for some scandalous behavior from the government…kinda like taking their marbles and going home.  Will Jack Ryan be able to pull our fat out of the fire?  This is Clear and Present Danger.

Miss my bullwhip.

Ritter: Spoiler! The world is gray, Jack!

Our favorite desk jockey Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford of Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Patriot Games and Cowboys & Aliens) is back with the CIA and his boss Admiral Greer (James Earl Jones of End of the Road, Claudine, Exorcist II: The Heretic, Conan the Barbarian, Patriot Games and Field of Dreams) is giving the reigns of director of the CIA to Jack as he is the only man he has ever trusted.  Not long on his watch, the Coast Guard find a clipper finding the corpses of an American banker and his family murdered in their beds with several Columbians armed with AKs surrendering immediately.  Must be the 50 caliber that will skuttle the ship they are worried about.

Hey, Jimmy Johns. We need 4 club sandwiches, chips and cokes please.

President Bennett (Donald Moffat of The Thing, One Life to Live and the Unbearable Lightness of Being) finds it was a close personal friend that was skimming close to $650 million in cash from a Columbian drug cartel. National Security Advisor James Cutter (Harris Yulin of Scarface, Another Woman, Narrow Margin and Cutthroat Island) confabs with the President who tells him these cartels represent a danger to the U.S. and must be dealt with immediately; giving an unofficial nod of approval bring the hammer down on the men responsible for his friend and family’s death. 

As Jack takes over for Greer he is asked to go before Congress and plead for $70 Million in the on-going operations in Columbia.  Congress and Jack are blissfully unaware that the funding with be for a black-ops mission.

Jack out of the loop for his Boy Scout ways starts to hear chatter about explosions and crops being destroyed in Columbia but no direct case workload coming through his office.  Old instincts kick in as the Deputy Director of Operations Ritter is not communicating with him Jack starts digging around.  Ritter links up with an older agent, John Clark (William Dafoe of Platoon, The English Patient, The Boondock Saints and Spider-Man) to run point with a special forces team. 

Sir, can we break for lunch? I'm thinkin' Arby's

 

With Columbian cartels losing patience with these attacks on their people and crops, the head of the cartel turns to his intelligence officer, former Colonel Cortez (Joaquim de Almeida of Desperado, Behind Enemy Lines,The Lovebirds and Three 60) of Cuban Intelligence is digging into his own investigation into the possibility of US soldiers in Columbia.  Can Jack save the soldiers, terminate this operation and bring the wrong doers before justice? 

Well go look up the movie.  It is a pretty decent thriller after all.

300th Blog!!!!! Tom Clancy Week: Patriot Games

Hello you wild and wacky kids to Day 2 of Tom Clancy Week and my 300^th blog!!!!  Yeah I am shocked too but there it is.  So let’s make this a good one for the late great Clancy and your reading attention span.  What say we follow the Ryan clan as for as England for a vacation…or is it?  Who would have predicted an assassination attempt on one of the Royals via a splinter radical group of the IRA?  Well about anyone that has read some Clancy knows that actions and consequences are always going down around the world so grab your fish and chips, mind the traffic and dodge some submachine gun fire.  This is Patriot Games.

 

O' Paddy Wagon. hehe.

Paddy O’Neil: The day that I sell out my countrymen, will be the day that I put a bullet through my own spoiler.

Now a professor of Naval Academy tactics and military history Doctor Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford of American Graffiti, Star Wars, Force 10 from Navarone, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Blade Runner and Witness), his surgeon wife Doctor Cathy Ryan (Anne Archer of Falcon Crest, Fatal Attraction, Narrow Margin, Body of Evidence and The Art of War) and daughter Sally (Thora Birch of Parenthood, Hocus Pocus, Now and Then, American Beauty, Dungeons & Dragons and Ghost World) have made their way to Buckingham Palace to see the sights when a cadre of armed men shoot at the cousin of the Queen, Lord Holmes.  Moving his wife and daughter to safety; Jack then takes on the armed gunmen with guts and determination ending up killing one of the gunmen a boy of 15.  Jack is wounded and the local authorities come in to secure the scene.  

Football disagreement English and Irish.

Jack after released from the hospital testifies to what he saw and did in court seeing the man was hosing a car down with lead, Sean Miller (Sean Bean of Black Beauty, GoldenEye, Ronin, Don’t Say a Word, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Hitcher and Silent Hill) sentenced to rot on Albany Prison when his prison convoy is ambushed by his team, springing him.  His commanding officer Kevin O’Donnell (Patrick Bergin of Robin Hood, Highway to Hell, Love Crimes, The Island on Bird Street and One Man’s Hero) tells them they are off to hide out in North Africa to plot the next attack on Lord Holmes. 

Soon after arriving at home Cathy and Sally are attacked on the way back after school in Maryland.  With his wife and daughter surviving the assault Jack takes back his old office with the CIA under his mentor Admiral Greer (James Earl Jones of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Star Wars, Conan the Barbarian, The Flight of Dragons and Clear and Present Danger) O’ Donnell’s crew gets wind of this schedule change and they plan to wipe them all out.  Miller consumed by grief wants Ryan and his family dead for the life of his brother and O’ Donnell gives him his blessing to get him back in the game afterwards.   Jack is knighted on behalf of the realm and saving Lord Holmes is treated to dinner with him and the Ryan family invites him to visit their home and enjoy dinner with them.  

Thinking coming to work in a fedora and a whip, fellas.

What will happen next???   Well go watch the film already. ;)  Thank you all for giving this blog a look over and as always I appreciate the comments, compliments and suggestions!

Tom Clancy Week: The Hunt for Red October

Welcome you wild and zany kids to Tom Clancy Week as we look at the various films adapted from his novels and I thought we best showcase one of the most successful if not a few liberties taken with it. Enjoyable yes but a bit over the top given it is an A-list Hollywood production with of all things an action adventures director.  Will the suspense stay intact or will it blast all the windows in the Nakatomi Plaza?  Grab some popcorn and a soda and don’t miss a single cel on the screen.  This is The Hunt for Red October.

 

In Russia, submarine stalks you.

Captain Ramius: We will pass through the American patrols, past their sonar nets, and lay off their largest spoiler, and listen to their rock and roll…while we conduct missile drills.

In 1984, Tom Clancy wrote The Hunt for Red October, a story interlacing a Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius and a CIA analyst Jack Ryan.  The behemoth Typhoon-class submarine weighing in at 32 tons can with a water displacement rendering sonar capture completely inert.  What does that mean for us civvies?  Well folks, that means you have a missile platform lobbing nuclear warheads at all your major cities before we have even a heads up to it.    Captain Raimius (Sean Connery of Dr. No, Marnie, The Anderson Tapes, Outland and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) is entrusted with a floating death machine that makes very little to no noise in the waters which is one giant missile battery.  Make no mistake about this folks; this is a death dealer plain and simple.  Little does the Soviet Navy realize that Raimius plans to defect and bring the Red October in as a peace offering to the States giving him and his ranking officers a bit of freedom.  

Boy with the success of this movie, The Shadow will be marvelous.

CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin of Knots Landing, Beetlejuice, Miami Blues, The Edge, Clerks Animated Series and The Cooler) briefs (then pants) the government brass on the departure of this killer, quiet submarine and with great detail explains the unbridled threat it poses as the Soviet Navy deploys it.  The chatter is the Soviet Navy fears Raimius plays a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the US.  Ryan pitches the idea that Raimius plans to defect. And as he is the cubicle nerd he is scoffed at by a high ranking Admiral and Ryan retaliates with meeting this Soviet Commander before and knows how the man thinks and that he is well to listen to his worries.

 Ambassador Pelt (Richard Jordan of Logan’s Run, Dune, The Mean Season and Gettysburg) sits in on this meeting giving Ryan the leverage to seek out Raimius before the US Navy sinks them.  With that the clock is ticking on which armada will sink the Red October or will total annihilation occurs.

 

I'm in a sub! In a sub! In a mother f*&%ing sub!

I have just a few comments about this film now.  Director John McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard, Medicine Man, Last Action Hero and The 13^th Warrior) managed to pull off a thriller with his rough and tumble action adventures background, from decent crane shots, to low angle zooms the film captivates the audience with energy but also keeps the intensity of the suspense as well.  

Tom Clancy Week

Howdy folks.  As most of you are already aware that on October 1st of this year Best-Selling author Tom Clancy passed away.  Being an avid fan of his work and enjoying several of his novels as well as the video game adaptations of his novels I thought it only fair to honor a man that has entertained many of us with clever characters and bizarre scenarios.

 Hey I love Jack Ryan but an analyst should not be getting a fraction of the trouble that he did. A desk jockey should not be right in the middle of firefights and international incidents.  Sam Fisher on the other hand, total hard ass.  I love the idea of a man in his 50's in peak physical condition that was battered over the years still doing counter intelligence and field work taking out men 20 to 30 years younger than him.

Look I don't care wither Greedo shot first or not!

So this week we observe several film adaptations of his novels and hope you all enjoy the action packed adventures.