JACK RYAN : Shadow Recruit - 21st January 2014

Saw 'JACK RYAN:SHADOW RECRUIT' last night on tight-arse Tuesday and glad I did because this predictable reinvented piece of hokum is not worth anything more than $12.50! 

In Chris Pine we now have the fourth actor in five instalments to play our world saving arse kicking CIA agent Jack Ryan, and I knew from the opening scene that something was not quite right. In 1990 we had Alec Baldwin playing JR in 'THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER' and our character then was in his mid-forties+. Then we had Harrison Ford in 'CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER' and 'PATRIOT GAMES' and easily JR is in his 50's, followed up in 2002 by Ben Affleck in 'THE SUM OF ALL FEARS' with the character in his late 30's. Now in 2014 we have a kid who graduates from the London School of Economics in 2001, joins the marines and gets shot down over Afghanistan, has spinal injuries and has to learn to walk over the ensuing year and then gets enlisted into the CIA before he's hit 30. The timeline here is cactus! 

Ken Branagh Directs and passed up on 'THOR 2' to do so, and stars as the nasty Russian dude whose aim is to bring down the US economy so creating a second Great Depression while Russia ultimately rises victorious on the strength of its massive oil reserves. Kevin Costner recruits young Jack and plays the stoic, nurturing, always at the ready mentor, and Keira Knightly is JR's love interest unwittingly thrust into the world of US/Russian espionage. Chris Pine does an OK job but give me his Captain James T. Kirk over CIA Apprentice Jack Ryan any day!

You have seen this film a thousand times before, there is nothing new here and the plot is wafer thin and is over all to quickly. The film has polish, its looks good and promises a lot, but, fails to deliver! This is no Jason Bourne, it's no James Bond and it's not even John McLean - wait for the DVD and save yourself the price of entry!


-Steve, at Odeon Online-