Year: 2014
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Screenplay: Adam Cozard, David Koepp
Starring: Chris Pine, Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Costner, Keira
Knightly
Synopsis is here:
I’m guessing some people are considering Jack Ryan: Shadow
Recruit as a return to the old school. Well, fair play to them. Despite what my
friends sometimes think, I do like to take in the thoughts of others. However
when it comes to my view on the film (which I keep calling it Shadow Agent,
such is the generic title), I found it to be a cornucopia of cliché which will
most likely be forgotten in a blink of an eye. Then again that’s what people
want right? How dare people have high expectations for a spy thriller. They
should be farted out with no distinction at all, right?
Jack Ryan may have nabbed a little from the likes of Bourne, but it’s taken a lot
more from older, more typical spy jaunts. You can see this by the vast amount
of times super secret items are passed covertly between people. If you were to
make this a drinking game, you could be so inebriated that you’d forget the
first 2 acts.
Then again, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit also struggles with the
idea of lasting effects. Our dear Mr
Branagh may state that Chris Pine’s Jack is no superhero, but trust me we get a
Jack Ryan who performs near impossible feats with a near broken back and is
hopping skipping and jumping better than Mario during a Bowser level. Emotional
depth fares no better, but then again the limp arguments that Ryan (a spirited
but slumming Pine) faces with his wife Cathy (an anonymous Knightly) come across
as vague and ineffectual despite their intent.
The only thing that remains in the mind is the idea that it’ll
be those nasty Russians that will cause America’s “2nd Great
Depression”. After watching how Wolf of Wall Street dissect the type of near
psychotic excess that help take a dent out the western world from within, to
state that it’s those pesky Red’s who be causing financial grief because of
cold war flash backs, seems more than a little rich.
Sparring with the old enemy may be the only thing to spark
interest in a film which is dedicated to keeping one foot in the grave, but the
cold war memories also hint the issue with not only Jack Ryan, but one or two
of the more recent entries of the spy genre. Do we really need a Jack Ryan now? A spy all jazzed up for a younger audience who
probably have little care for the Cold War? While an older audience may have
the knowledge to check out older features that don’t seem so slight and forgettable?
The film’s disappointing box office has still managed limp into
the black, so it won’t surprise me if we see another entry in the Jack Ryan
series. Although money made doesn’t mean movie enjoyed, there appears to be
enough greenbacks behind this to nudge an executive into action. I’m guessing I’m
once again in the minority asking why.
