Review of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) by Steven B — 05 Jul 2014

Nothing new in this action thriller directed by Kenneth Branagh (co-starring as well), and written by Adam Cozad and David Koepp . Again, we have US government as good guys and Russians as bad guys... and it is simply ridiculous story. Because if there is a collapse in the US economy, Russians will have nothing to do with it - America already did the work itself! I had to limit myself on judging artistic values because the story could not hold together with any credibility... maybe as much as other CIA propaganda... In leading roles we have popular Chris Pine, Kevin Costner and Keira Knightley as stars shining only with two thirds of the light... The film features the fictional Jack Ryan character created by author Tom Clancy, and it is the fifth film in the Jack Ryan series. This one is different from the others, though! This one is not an adaptation of a particular Clancy novel, but rather an original story, and because Pine now stars in the title role, he is the fourth actor to play Ryan (before in that role we had Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Ben Affleck).

There were few hard-to-believe moments in this reboot of the 1990s franchise but most of the time Kenneth Branagh played safe, as a director and as a Russian villain and the film was soundly structured, smart at moments and quite fast. Do not expect to be as intelligent as the Bourne movies, but it was enjoyable to a degree, with lack of personality as a main complain.