Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Directed by: Kenneth Branagh
Written by: Adam Cozad, David Koepp, based on characters by Tom Clancy
Starring: Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh, Leen Kudrjawizki, Alec Utgoff, Peter Andersson, Elena Velikanova, Nonso Anozie, Seth Ayott, Colm Feore, Gemma Chan
Action/Drama/Thriller - 105 min
Written by: Adam Cozad, David Koepp, based on characters by Tom Clancy
Starring: Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh, Leen Kudrjawizki, Alec Utgoff, Peter Andersson, Elena Velikanova, Nonso Anozie, Seth Ayott, Colm Feore, Gemma Chan
Action/Drama/Thriller - 105 min
Chris Pine is the king of reboot franchises. First, he took on Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise to resuscitate the dormant Star Trek series. Now, Pine establishes the second reboot of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. On paper, reboot ideas come across stale and derivative; however, fresh blood has catapulted the new Star Trek movies toward historic blockbuster status. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, on the other hand, falls more into the 2002 Ben Affleck as Jack Ryan reboot in The Sum of All Fears; a reboot that never gained a foothold.
Not based on an actual Clancy novel, the newest iteration of Jack Ryan takes the character all the way back to the beginning, before any military service or intelligence work. Watching the 9/11 attacks on TV, Jack signs up for the Marines and is severely wounded in Afghanistan, of course while saving two of his soldiers, for Jack Ryan is nothing if not a humble hero. While rehabbing at Walter Reed, Jack meets two people who will significantly shape his future: his doctor turned girlfriend Cathy (Keira Knightley) and CIA operative Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner).
Jack Ryan is an economics genius so the CIA places him on Wall Street to sniff out terrorist financial malfeasance. Instead of discovering the next al Qaeda plot though Jack runs into a Russian scheme to both launch a terrorist attack and tank the American economy, a double whammy. The Cold War is over but this is Jack Ryan, the Evil Empire will forever be his nemesis. The architect behind these nefarious activities would also make a fine Bond villain, Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh). Branagh, born in Northern Ireland, lays on an overly thick Russian accent but perfects the, “I am going to have you killed and dismembered” icy stare.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a tale of two films. The first half is tight, suspenseful, and sets up a solid cat and mouse covert spy thriller. There is a lot of technical financial and computer jargon, but tense scenes showing Jack break into an impenetrable office building to steal secrets are exciting. Then, just like a grenade tossed into the middle of a room, the second half of the movie pulverizes any and all intrigue and shifts the movie into straight up action, shoot-em-up nonsense.
The screenplay credits two writers and it feels like they each wrote one half of it which is why there is a disjointed break right at the midpoint of the movie. This is Adam Cozad’s first screenplay so I will give him the benefit of the doubt; however, David Koepp has credits including Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Snake Eyes (1998), and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997); credits that give one the feeling he wrote the script’s dreadful second half.
The intriguing spy thriller is also diluted a bit by the unhealthy relationship between Jack and Cathy. She thinks Jack is being unfaithful, he keeps asking Cathy to marry him. Perhaps she is hesitant because Jack says such off-putting lines such as, “I love you desperately; don’t lose faith in me.” Who says that? The other distraction is the speed of intelligence analysis and deduction. The audience was laughing at the screen. I know it makes for a fast pace to have the hero connect all the dots at once when nobody else can, but the speed of light computer work, guesses, and ‘a-ha!’ moments feel like it mocks rather than moves the plot forward.
More than just playing the bad guy, Kenneth Branagh also directed the film. This marks his continued slide away from the Shakespeare adaptations he was known for into more mainstream, bland fare. Not too many of us expected Thor (2011) and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit from the man who starred in and directed Henry V (1989) and Much Ado About Nothing (1993). He shows panoramic vistas of the most famous Moscow sites and the sterile veneer of an office building that could house nobody else but one of the most corrupt oligarchs in the world.
Taking up where last year’s awful A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) left off, Russia is not coming across movie screens lately in a very flattering light. Are these geopolitical echoes of current events or will Russia always make for a convenient bad guy setting? Vladimir Putin may look like the head of state most likely to blow up the moon or have a secret military base somewhere in Antarctica but perhaps one day we can move past the knee-jerk stereotypes of Russia as ‘the other’. For now at least, we have Jack Ryan to not only uncover the evil plot, but to singlehandedly save us all from annihilation.
Not based on an actual Clancy novel, the newest iteration of Jack Ryan takes the character all the way back to the beginning, before any military service or intelligence work. Watching the 9/11 attacks on TV, Jack signs up for the Marines and is severely wounded in Afghanistan, of course while saving two of his soldiers, for Jack Ryan is nothing if not a humble hero. While rehabbing at Walter Reed, Jack meets two people who will significantly shape his future: his doctor turned girlfriend Cathy (Keira Knightley) and CIA operative Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner).
Jack Ryan is an economics genius so the CIA places him on Wall Street to sniff out terrorist financial malfeasance. Instead of discovering the next al Qaeda plot though Jack runs into a Russian scheme to both launch a terrorist attack and tank the American economy, a double whammy. The Cold War is over but this is Jack Ryan, the Evil Empire will forever be his nemesis. The architect behind these nefarious activities would also make a fine Bond villain, Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh). Branagh, born in Northern Ireland, lays on an overly thick Russian accent but perfects the, “I am going to have you killed and dismembered” icy stare.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a tale of two films. The first half is tight, suspenseful, and sets up a solid cat and mouse covert spy thriller. There is a lot of technical financial and computer jargon, but tense scenes showing Jack break into an impenetrable office building to steal secrets are exciting. Then, just like a grenade tossed into the middle of a room, the second half of the movie pulverizes any and all intrigue and shifts the movie into straight up action, shoot-em-up nonsense.
The screenplay credits two writers and it feels like they each wrote one half of it which is why there is a disjointed break right at the midpoint of the movie. This is Adam Cozad’s first screenplay so I will give him the benefit of the doubt; however, David Koepp has credits including Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Snake Eyes (1998), and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997); credits that give one the feeling he wrote the script’s dreadful second half.
The intriguing spy thriller is also diluted a bit by the unhealthy relationship between Jack and Cathy. She thinks Jack is being unfaithful, he keeps asking Cathy to marry him. Perhaps she is hesitant because Jack says such off-putting lines such as, “I love you desperately; don’t lose faith in me.” Who says that? The other distraction is the speed of intelligence analysis and deduction. The audience was laughing at the screen. I know it makes for a fast pace to have the hero connect all the dots at once when nobody else can, but the speed of light computer work, guesses, and ‘a-ha!’ moments feel like it mocks rather than moves the plot forward.
More than just playing the bad guy, Kenneth Branagh also directed the film. This marks his continued slide away from the Shakespeare adaptations he was known for into more mainstream, bland fare. Not too many of us expected Thor (2011) and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit from the man who starred in and directed Henry V (1989) and Much Ado About Nothing (1993). He shows panoramic vistas of the most famous Moscow sites and the sterile veneer of an office building that could house nobody else but one of the most corrupt oligarchs in the world.
Taking up where last year’s awful A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) left off, Russia is not coming across movie screens lately in a very flattering light. Are these geopolitical echoes of current events or will Russia always make for a convenient bad guy setting? Vladimir Putin may look like the head of state most likely to blow up the moon or have a secret military base somewhere in Antarctica but perhaps one day we can move past the knee-jerk stereotypes of Russia as ‘the other’. For now at least, we have Jack Ryan to not only uncover the evil plot, but to singlehandedly save us all from annihilation.
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