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Overall, there is something abstract and distant about Patriot Games. But there are at least four exciting preliminary confrontations between the good folks and the bad ones, and a stormy-night conclusion in which all of the above are somewhat laboriously maneuvered into a large, dark house, a device that may be conventional but is nonetheless well managed. Along with the expert binding of Ford's performance, these are the juicy raisins -- Shall we say the raisons d'etre? -- in an otherwise blandish pudding.