The Ryan Initiative

Jack Ryan: nine novels (15 if you include the Jack Ryan Jr series), five films, four lead actors (Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck & now Chris Pine) and two reboots. Tom Clancy's best-known character has endured and enjoyed a varied existence to say the least.

Intended as the second reimagining, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, is more a rebirth of the Marine turned CIA agent turned world-saving, death-defying, awe-inspiring, all American hero. Forget the books, ignore the timeline, disengage the brain, abandon reason, slice the pizza, sip the beer and settle down for a mindless romp. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is predictable fun with barely a toe in the world of reality but it is fun just as long as you forget to think.

Jack Ryan (Pine) is a student at the London School of Economics when terrorists fly two aeroplanes into the World Trade Centre towers. 9/11 prompts Ryan to make a career about-turn and join the Marines. Fast forward a few years and Ryan is undergoing intense rehab in a military hospital having barely survived after a chopper he was aboard was shot down in Afghanistan. Ryan is firstly observed and then recruited by the shadowy Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner) as a desk-bound CIA analyst, but a trip to Russia to investigate the nefarious financial dealings of Viktor Cheverin (Kenneth Branagh) elevates Ryan very swiftly to role of field agent, and an action man is (re)born.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is neither as loud nor as brainless as last year's White-House-under-attack double act of White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen but it is about as much fun and has at least as many plot holes. The entire finale comes about as a result of a catalogue of unrealistically simple contrivances and there is no reason to have Ryan's girlfriend, Cathy Muller (Keira Knightly), anywhere near Moscow other than to sex up the film and redress the situation of the underused Anne Archer from the Harrison Ford years.

There are no prizes for acting here. Pine may have found franchise work for the next few years but Costner, Knightly and Branagh are here for the light relief and the easy pay cheques. Let's just hope that for each of them this is merely a short break from the superior work of which they are all capable.

Branagh, on double duties as actor/director, will have done himself a lot of favours here with the money men at the studios and it further cements his position as a gun for hire in Hollywood, but all these popcorn flicks he's turning out for the studios take him further away from shooting another series of Wallander for the BBC. And I for one am not happy about that.

It must be possible to make a thriller that is exciting, suspenseful, vaguely realistic and intelligent, but Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit isn't it. 'Fun' is fine but it isn't memorable or satisfying. Less a case of 'could do better', more a case of 'has been better.'

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Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) is moved by 9/11 to go from the London School of Economics to fighting in Afghanistan. His helicopter is shot down and he goes through intense rehab with med student Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley). Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner) recruits him to work for the CIA. Jack gets a Wall Street job to find hidden terrorist financing covertly. Ten years later, he's at Harrman Brothers and living with girlfriend Cathy. He finds irregularities with the accounts of Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh). He seems to be propping up the US dollar. Jack is sent over to Russia to meet Cherevin but the analyst is thrown into the deep end.

I like Chris Pine's version of Jack Ryan. He is indeed a fish out of water. Keira Knightley has good chemistry with him. Kevin Costner is a bit stiff although he has the commanding presence. Branagh is passable as an evil Russian. In general, this is a good introduction to the character. However financial analysis is always going to be a hard sell and I don't buy the premise in this movie. It's the best that could be done with the material. It has a small bit of action. It probably suffers from being smaller than the other action thriller genre. Nevertheless, this is a good 90s thriller.

Tom Clancy's durable creation Jack Ryan rides again in this well written (Adam Cozad and David Koepp) and well directed (Kenneth Branagh) new version – JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT. Previous actors Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck all contributed their own versions of this bright and clever and strong willed intrigue hero, but Chris Pine steps in now and may be the best choice for future incarnations of the character. He is a solid actor, maintains a boyish innocence beneath his bifurcated roles as a near PhD in Economics and as a CIA analyst. His supporting cast is essentially on target and together they make this one of the better Jack Ryan adventures to date. This is Tom Clancy's last film as a writer before his death on October 1, 2013.

The film begins when Ryan (Chris Pine) was attending the London School of Economics and 9/11 happened. He enlisted in the USMC and was assigned to Afghanistan. His helicopter was shot down and Ryan saved his comrades but suffered severe spinal injuries that would require intense rehab: in rehab he is guided by 3rd year med student Cathy (Keira Knightley) and there is a definite chemistry. While there, he is noted by a man named Harper (Kevin Costner), who works for the CIA and would like him to finish his studies and get a job on Wall Street so he can find out of any terrorist plot through their finances. A few years later, Ryan finds anomalies in the accounts of a Russian named Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh). Jack knows he should go to Russia to investigate his findings and Harper instructs him to tell no one, including his now live-in girlfriend Cathy. Cathy observes situations which make her doubt Jack's fidelity. Jack goes to Russia and Cherevin assigns him a Bodyguard (Nonso Anozie) but upon escorting Jack to his lush hotel room the bodyguard attempts of murder Jack and jack drowns him in the bathtub. Obvious Cherevin is hiding something so Jack goes to meet him, and he says he will bring his fiancé along. But Cathy shows up and Jack has to tell her the truth. Harper says Cathy has to go with Jack when she meets Cherevin. Jack doesn't want her to but Cathy says she's going. So the action begins that leads to the climax – a very fast paced, excellent chase and resolution.

Other fine actors add to the story - Colm Feore, Alec Utgoff, Lenn Kudrjawizki, Mikhail Baryshnikov among many others. The urgent musical score is the work of Patrick Doyle and the cinematography is by Haris Zambarloukos. It is interesting to see how people are mentioning subjects like Keira Knightley's teeth and Chris Pine's complexion. Both are unrelated 'flaws' in this fine little film.

What an utterly sad and offensive legacy for Tom Clancy. In Hollywood, truly, nothing is sacred.

Instead of the thought provoking, truth to power story we came to expect from a Jack Ryan movie, this brings us more of Hollywood's waronterrah porn.

It was interesting a bit back in 2002 maybe. Let it go. As propaganda, you've pretty much saturated your market. For the rest of us, you've actually made expensive CGI FX boring.

The thing that made Jack Ryan more interesting than a Steven Seagal character was he was thoughtful, intelligent, and not an action figure. And Clancy raised some fascinating dilemmas with American might and power.

What is this? Garbage.

In 2002 the underwhelming The Sum of All Fears - with Ben Affleck in the lead role - put the Ryan franchise in the morgue. 12 years on and the famous CIA analyst is back on the big screen with a brand new story and a fresh face. Perhaps they should've waited another dozen years, as this reboot is utterly forgettable and offers nothing in the way of originality or inventiveness. The action has no pulse, the plot is straight out of 1980 and there's no thriller element to keep you guessing as the "Trust No One" tagline on the poster would suggest; which is all a shock when you consider Kenneth Branagh was at the helm and his last effort Thor, was such a gleefully entertaining motion picture. It also doesn't help that the latest incarnation of Jack Ryan, as portrayed by Chris Pine, has about as much charisma as a tree. Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner and Branagh are serviceable as love interest, mentor and villain respectively, however there's little any of them can do to boost the excitement levels. It's not a bad movie per se, just a run- of-the-mill affair you'll struggle to remember after the end credits.