Let's start off by letting you know that I'm a huge fan of the books by Tom Clancy. I was very disappointed when Alec Baldwin bailed on the character after The Hunt for Red October. Happier when they brought in Harrison Ford to continue the series even if he was too old for the part. I enjoyed Patriot Games and to a lesser extent A Clear and Present Danger but, as mentioned, he was too old for the part so it could only go just so far.
So with this reboot, and yes, it has all the hallmarks of a reboot, they started off with someone young (Chris Pine) to play the role of Jack Ryan. This starts at the beginning of his career showing the helicopter crash alluded to in The Hunt for Red October as well as when he meets his wife Caroline "Cathy" Mueller (Keira Knightly here) as she is training to become the eye doctor she will be by the time you see her in The Hunt for Red October. (don't ask me how they make the leap from Caroline to Cathy...makes no sense but they are trying to tie things to the books and previous movies) So you get a good background on this character before the real secret agent work begins.
Unless I've completely forgotten this story from the books, this is a brand new story about Jack Ryan. As I warned you...reboot here. He's a new analyst, barely out of PT from the helicopter crash, and pulled into the CIA by a senior agent (Kevin Costner) to work undercover in a certain financial institute after 9-11 to find terrorist accounts. When he does find something suspicious it is from Russia and his boss okay's Ryan to take a trip to Russia for an audit of the accounts and the CIA is never happier to help him out. It begins smoothly enough and then all hell breaks loose and Ryan goes from analyst to agent in a matter of hours thanks to Costner's support and back up help. Things really go wonky when Cathy arrives thinking she's catching her fiance in an affair and instead finds him embroiled in espionage! The action is great and Pine is good in this role so you won't have any issues there.
What you will have issues with are Kenneth Branagh as the bad guy. He's playing the Russian businessman who is actually the terrorist that Ryan is sent to "audit" by his company and bring down for the CIA. While I think he did an awesome job as director of this film, his acting is very flat in this movie. Maybe he thought he was playing deeply hidden emotion that bubbles to the surface from time to time but it comes off as his character having a bit of life to him from time to time! Maybe the job of directing and acting was too much for him this time. No clue but he's the weak link here. There are a few plot holes but, hey, it's an action flick, my plausibility levels are suspended for those. That they went back to Russia is a bit off. That country is having enough issues without focusing in on the US to attack. But then, they don't pin it on the government here, just one group of men so maybe that's how they explain it away. The other issue here is that Pine is already the current hero in the Star Trek series...and does a great job in those too so how much back and forth are we going to be able to do between the two if this reboot takes off? It's a question that bounced around in my head as I realized that this reboot is really very good.
There really is nothing beyond the usual "Mission Impossible" type of violence here for the 10 and up set. Younger than that and it might be too much and the story too hard to follow. There is a whole "sleeper cell" thing going on here that might lose them completely. No sex here but one scene where Jack and Cathy are waking up in bed together in the morning so if living together before marriage is a big one in your family then you may have questions to answer. I don't remember a lot of swearing so there must not have been a lot. The rating is all violence based. But for this genre this is well done. I give it an 8.5 out of 10. Do you have to see it on the big screen? No...it will play well on your tv too. But if you are looking for a fun action flick to go see then head on out to see this one!
Barbara Says:
A new Jack Ryan movie. This has been an interesting series. What with Alec Baldwin starting it off with ``The Hunt for Red October'' many years ago and then we had Harrison Ford taking over for a few really good ones too. Now we have Chris Pine. Have to admit I was a bit leery about him being Jack Ryan. Not that I don`t like him because I do. He has already proved he can do action movies and do them well. It is just that it is hard to take over a well acted role behind the above stars mentioned. But you know what? He did it. He did it very well too. This is Jack Ryan in college when the towers fell and he signs up for the Marines. Bad helicopter crash later he ends up in hospital trying to walk again. Because he sent repeated E-mails and made calls to higher ups about things he saw while in the battlefield he comes to the attention of the CIA. And as the saying goes``the chase was on''. The hospital is where he meets his later to be wife, played by Keria Knightly. The bad guys are really bad in these movies and you feel for a young Jack who goes to Russia to do an audit at a Russia bank. The American bank he works at under cover is in business with this bank and he has found huge accounts hidden . He reports to his CIA boss, played by Kevin Costner and it is fixed so he goes to check it out. There he almost ends up dead right off the bat. He kills a man in hand to hand combat. His first time and it unsettles him that he could really kill like that. Will keep that out so you are surprised when it happens. He meets with the head guy the next day who is played very well by Kenneth Branagh as a really bad guy indeed. Fast moving action movie after that and well done too. We all three enjoyed it and the theater was packed. We had to sit two rows from front and were worried about being so close. It was fine. We didn't even notice it at all. Fun evening and a good movie. Out of 10 I would give it a 8.5 because it was well done.
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