Patriot Games (Special Collector’s Edition) (1992)

· Starring: Harrison Ford, Anne Archer, Patrick Bergin, Sean Bean, Thora Birch, James Earl Jones, Richard Harris, Samuel L. Jackson

· Directed by: Phillip Noyce

· Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment

· Video: 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen

· Audio: English DTS 5.1, English DD 5.1, French DD 2.0 Surround

· Subtitles: English, Spanish, and English Closed Captions

· Extras: “Patriot Games Up Close” featurette with new cast and crew interviews, theatrical trailer, scene selection

· Length: 116 minutes

· Rating: ****

· Available separately or as part of the Jack Ryan Special Edition DVD Collection

Based on the Tom Clancy novel, Patriot Games finds retired CIA analyst Jack Ryan on vacation in England with his wife and daughter. While waiting for his family outside of Buckingham Palace, Ryan thwarts a terrorist attack on members of the Royal Family. Ryan returns to the United States as a local hero for his actions. Subsequently, one of the surviving terrorists, obsessed with avenging the death of his younger brother who was killed by Ryan during the failed attack, escapes the authorities back in England. This terrorist and several of his compatriots then travel to Maryland to track down Ryan and his family.

The video quality of this DVD is very good. Images are clean and sharp. Black levels are consistently deep. Colors are accurate and dark with saturated hues. Picture defect mastering is solid with no major flaws or digital compression artifacts. The overall audio quality is excellent with the English DTS 5.1 track serving as the basis for this review. (Note: This is one of the first three DVDs from Paramount to include DTS as an audio option). The soundtrack’s mix actively uses all of the discrete channels. Dialogue is crisp and natural sounding. The surround channels are moderately active, utilized for both music and ambient sounds, and also employ a handful of split rear effects. The low frequency effects channel pumps out several sequences with dynamic, thumping bass. Present in about one-third of the DVD’s chapters, tactile effects are present in the form of light to heavy impacts that originate from both the sound effects and the music score.

Reference equipment used for this review: [Video projector- Studio Experience Cinema 17SF; Projection screen- Da-Lite 106” Da-Snap; DVD player- Pioneer Elite DV-37; A/V Receiver- Sherwood Newcastle R-963T; Speakers- BIC DV62si mains, DV62CLRs center, Adatto DV52si rears, D1210R subwoofer; Tactile Transducers- Clark Synthesis Gold; Video Switcher- Key Digital SW4x1; Cables/Wires- Bettercables.com]