Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

January 16, 2014

Jays Rating:
Actors: / /
Director:

For the fifth time in twenty-five years we will see Tom Clancy’s character Jack Ryan and this time the franchise is being rebooted in the action-thriller, Jack Ryan, Shadow Recruit. In a short prologue, we see Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) as an undergrad at LSU when the Twin Towers are hit in New York. Two years later, he’s a Marine deployed to Afghanistan when his helicopter is downed and he is hospitalized. There, he meets a young doctor named Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley) and they begin dating. He also meets a Navy commander named Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner) who recruits him into the CIA. Ten years later, he’s a CIA analyst working on Wall Street when he finds out the Russians are going to try to crash the stock market with a sale on government bonds. Jack also learns there is going to be a terrorist attack so he goes to Russia as an undercover CIA agent to do some “auditing work.” The night before he is to break into the office of a dangerous Russian operative named, Viktor Cherevis (Kenneth Branagh), his girlfriend Kathy surprises him at his hotel in Moscow. (Yes, they are still dating 10 years later.) She becomes involved in a very risky game trying to determine when attacks are going to occur. When they find out – and you knew they would – it’s a race between Jack and Viktor to New York. This is the first Jack Ryan film that wasn’t originally written as a novel by Tom Clancy. This was actually great because the screenplay was specifically written to keep the film at 105 minutes. Because of the quick pace and the lean running time, when the film ended I was completely satisfied and left wanting more. (No I’m not talking about popcorn.) I was impressed with the introduction of Jack Ryan and this time we learn how he began his CIA career. Chris Pine plays a convincing Jack Ryan who uses his brain more than his brawn. His portrayal of the Tom Clancy character was as convincing as his 3 predecessors: Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Ben Affleck. On the downside, we are about 20 years past the time when Russian agents attack the United States and the tagline says “Trust No One,” but everyone in the film is completely trustworthy. (Maybe they mean don’t trust the trailers, producers, and taglines!) There are also some scenes that don’t make sense, but like most action films you just have to suspend disbelief. This film isn’t really anything special but there is still a lot to like about it and I’m giving it a B rating.

This movie has been given a PG13 rating by the MPAA