Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (15.)
Directed by Kenneth Branagh.
Starring Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh, Peter Andersson and Elena Velikanova. 105 mins.
I think you must always carry a certain scepticism about a movie that opens with a shot of Big Ben AND the Millennium Wheel together, but still needs to have a “London” caption to make sure we know where it is. This is the fifth Jack Ryan film and so far he’s gone through four actors (Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck) and two reboots without making any real mark on the world of cinema. In airport book shops and on games consoles Tom Clancy’s CIA analyst is a big deal, but in the movies he may be the most anonymous hero ever, best known as the other bloke in that Sean Connery submarine movie. Becoming the new Jack Ryan is akin to being cast as Father Christmas – a prestigious gig but not one to make your mark in.
Chris Pine’s take on the character is a begin-again effort that has the young student Ryan joining the services after 9/11 and, by way of Afghanistan, ending up as an undercover CIA analyst working on Wall Street trying to detect covert terrorist funding. The story about a Russian plot to bring America to its knees by wiping out the value of the dollar by manipulating the market after a terrorist attack seems to have an authentic feel of Tom Clancy realpolitik to it. The film though is a mishmash of recent action films; a shadow recreation of anything that works.
It is a passable night out: it moves along entertainingly enough; the new Cold War feel is fun (though most of Moscow seems to be located in the streets around Liverpool Street station); Pine and Costner’s protégé and mentor relationship is convincing. But for a relaunch of a character it is wishy-washy and nondescript. Even though Pine plays him with gusto there isn’t a clear, thought through interpretation of who Ryan is. Instead he twists from vulnerable to invincible to fit whatever scene from Bourne, Bond or Mission Impossible the film is trying to copy.
And what kind of Jack Ryan gets engaged to Keira Knightley? It’s like casting Maggie Smith as Hulk Hogan’s mother. Never has Keira’s trademark wrinkled-nose-pixie-frown-that-expresses-all-emotions seemed so inadequate to the task.
Directed by Kenneth Branagh.
Starring Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh, Peter Andersson and Elena Velikanova. 105 mins.
I think you must always carry a certain scepticism about a movie that opens with a shot of Big Ben AND the Millennium Wheel together, but still needs to have a “London” caption to make sure we know where it is. This is the fifth Jack Ryan film and so far he’s gone through four actors (Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck) and two reboots without making any real mark on the world of cinema. In airport book shops and on games consoles Tom Clancy’s CIA analyst is a big deal, but in the movies he may be the most anonymous hero ever, best known as the other bloke in that Sean Connery submarine movie. Becoming the new Jack Ryan is akin to being cast as Father Christmas – a prestigious gig but not one to make your mark in.
Chris Pine’s take on the character is a begin-again effort that has the young student Ryan joining the services after 9/11 and, by way of Afghanistan, ending up as an undercover CIA analyst working on Wall Street trying to detect covert terrorist funding. The story about a Russian plot to bring America to its knees by wiping out the value of the dollar by manipulating the market after a terrorist attack seems to have an authentic feel of Tom Clancy realpolitik to it. The film though is a mishmash of recent action films; a shadow recreation of anything that works.
It is a passable night out: it moves along entertainingly enough; the new Cold War feel is fun (though most of Moscow seems to be located in the streets around Liverpool Street station); Pine and Costner’s protégé and mentor relationship is convincing. But for a relaunch of a character it is wishy-washy and nondescript. Even though Pine plays him with gusto there isn’t a clear, thought through interpretation of who Ryan is. Instead he twists from vulnerable to invincible to fit whatever scene from Bourne, Bond or Mission Impossible the film is trying to copy.
And what kind of Jack Ryan gets engaged to Keira Knightley? It’s like casting Maggie Smith as Hulk Hogan’s mother. Never has Keira’s trademark wrinkled-nose-pixie-frown-that-expresses-all-emotions seemed so inadequate to the task.
