Welcome back Jack Ryan. We remember you
over two decades ago when you were young, but established, and
looked like Alec Baldwin, We remember you a little after
that when you were middle-aged and looked like Harrison Ford,
and we vaguely remember when you looked like Ben
Affleck. Unfortunately the only thing I can recall about
'The Sum of All Fears' is that Morgan Freeman died in
it. Hope that's not a spoiler. One thing that has
always remained constant about these various Jack Ryan's is
that he's always been the smartest guy in the room and he will
kick a little ass when pressed. Jack Ryan has returned,
and this time he's just getting started in the spy game and
now he looks like Chris Pine. Jack is still the smartest
guy in the room, mainly because everybody else around him
seems to be really stupid, and he will kick a little ass when
necessary, mainly because almost everybody else around him is
useless and is really slow to react to anything.
In this movie 'Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit', thank goodness for
Jack Ryan or else we would all be doomed.
September 11th, 2001. Oxford PhD candidate Jack Ryan
observes the horror of that day and swears, as long as he's
alive, nothing like that will ever happen again if he has
anything to say about it. Jack subsequently joins the
Marines, is pretty darned good at it, and probably would've
been great at it were not for the helicopter crash that would
change his life. For the better actually. In a
way. Except for the people that will be trying to
constantly kill him every day for the rest of his life, but
that's down the line.
The good thing about Jack's significant injuries is that he
will meet the pretty intern Cathy Muller (Kiera Knightly) who
will eventually become his lady love, and he will also catch
the eye of Admiral William Harper (Kevin Costner) who loves
this young man's mind and grit, and will offer him a job
within his special club called the C.I.A. where Jack will go
undercover as a simple Wall Street Analyst and follow the
money which will hopefully uncover possible future terror
attacks. This just crossed my mind, but I wonder does
Jack get a paycheck from his Wall Street firm AND the
CIA? That would be sweet if he does.
Eventually Jack uncovers some financial
shenanigans going on in Moscow, spearheaded by super mean
Russian magnate Viktor Cherivan (Kenneth Branagh).
Note that he spells Viktor with a 'k' which just screams
evil. Anyway, Jack has to jet to Moscow, as the lowly
financial analyst, to sort through this mess, and now his very
first spy adventure begins.
It's typical spy stuff featuring attempted assassinations,
misdirection, conspiracies and a grand plan to bring the
imperialistic west down to its knees. Jack kind of had
this under some control until his fiancée, who we see has some
trust issues about her man, surprises him in Moscow and now
things get a little complicated. Complicated for Jack
because nobody else is doing anything except watching
Jack. Save us Jack Ryan… save us.
'Shadow Recruit' was directed by Mr. Branagh, who we sometimes
love as a director… 'Dead Again', 'Much Ado About Nothing',
'Thor'… and sometimes we don't love so much... 'Frankenstein',
'Sleuth'. But in regards to this film, admittedly we
didn't love 'Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit', but we did like
it.
As far as spy thrillers go, Branagh hits all the right spy
thrill points at all the right spy thrill times, as
predictable as they might be. The snarling, heavily
accented villain? Check. The damsel who shouldn't
be in distress but nonetheless finds herself in
distress? Check. Car chases, fist fights, people
looking at computer screens real serious like, and a countdown
to triple zero? Check on all of those. But as
predictable and as somewhat tired as those plot machinations
might be, we will admit that Mr. Branagh does know how to
stage a movie and 'Shadow Recruit' has more than enough
thrills, action, and fancy spy talk to get us through.
It would be nice, however, if Jack Ryan had a little bit of
help. Remember, Jack is really just a financial
analyst. Yes, Jack is an ex-marine, but he's an
ex-marine with a fused spinal cord. And yes Jack is a
CIA agent, but he only stayed at CIA school, I guess that's
what they call it, a couple of weeks. Still, poor Jack
has to defend himself against assassins, assassins that one
would think intel would tell him are gunning for him, but if
Jack doesn't know, then nobody knows. Jack has to break
into establishments and download critical info Mission
Impossible style because nobody else in the intelligence
community knows how. Jack has to figure out, all by
himself, what the evil dudes plan is because everybody else in
the intelligence community is unable to process
thoughts. Once Jack has it all figured out, I was sure
that all we had to do dispatch our superior FBI / CIA / SWAT /
Secret Service / Treasury Agent defense squads to stop this
madness, but no… Jack has to fly from Moscow to New York, with
the clock ticking, to stop this nonsense… all by
himself. I'm surprised they didn't make him fly
the plane.
But his name is in the title so I guess it's required that
Jack handle most of this nasty business needed to keep us
safe. Thanks Jack Ryan! Good movie this 'Jack
Ryan: Shadow Recruit'. Not great, but solid
entertainment.
Lisa's Take:
Jack is back- and terrorists beware. It has been almost
12 years since a Jack Ryan movie was made, and longer since
I've watched one. Shadow Recruit wasn't based on one
particular Clancy novel, but after all this time does it
matter? It seems a reboot was inevitable and time to bring
Jack back. Question is, where does Ryan fit in? In a
world filled with spies like James Bond, Jason Bourne, and
Ethan Hunt how does analyst Ryan stack up? 'The Hunt For Red
October' introduced Ryan almost 24 years ago, the world has
changed a lot since then. So has the spy game, is Ryan still
up for the challenge?
It wasn't lost on me that in this particular version, Ryan is
a financial analyst. A dig at banker/spy Bond perhaps?
Bond, who wouldn't know exchange rate risks from margins if
they were served up to him in his martini? Ryan is a book
smart spy, who writes memos and is simply looking for the
right person to listen to his threat assessments. Unlike other
spies, he seems ok (if not downright comfortable) with
bureaucracy, and you feel like he would rather write memos
than be out in the field. He does what any one of us non
heroic humans would do when presented with field work, look
around and assume there is someone else going to eliminate the
threat. Very unlike Bond, the loner out to save the
world who shoots first and asks questions later. Let's be
clear though, out of sense of duty and self-preservation, Ryan
will hit when attacked.
What further sets Ryan apart from Bond is his sense of family
obligation. It stood out to me in 'Hunt for Red October', the
scene at the end with the teddy bear, that this is a family
man. This movie continues that theme. Ryan doesn't want to be
alone, unlike the rest of his spy compadres. He just wants to
come home from work and have dinner with his girlfriend, whom
he hates lying to. Spoiler alert, it is revealed in the movie
it isn't Ryan with the commitment issues. Very unlike
Bond, a spy who is never home and must be content living in
swanky 5 star hotels and eating room service around the world,
mostly in tropical locations (the horror that must be).
Ryan's smarts in forensics accounting is also a sign of the
times. Can you imagine a movie in the 90's where the bad guy
is taken down because his money well dried up? Of course not.
We the audience want movies where the bad guy is taken out in
a blaze of glory, it helps if the hero spy has some kamikaze
style death wish and goes in outgunned and outmanned. Today we
wage war on terror, and no matter what your political leaning,
it is universally accepted that the actual war part is a catch
22. Win on one front, another front opens up. The war seems on
going, without end. Yet the part the US is actually doing well
at is stopping the money to terrorists. Hitting
terrorists where it really hurts, their wallet. Accountants of
the world must be rejoicing now, and poor Al Capone was just a
victim ahead of the times. This kind of thinking wasn't
revolutionary during the cold war, it just wasn't as
successful. Today though, a few clicks on a keyboard into the
wrong account and more damage can be done than with tanks,
missiles, and guns. Who knew the world finally caught up to
Jack Ryan? That isn't to say there isn't plenty of action in
this movie. Lots of shaky camera work, to make the Bourne
enthusiasts happy. And plenty of gun fire and car chasing to
make this a bonafide spy movie. It wasn't a spectacular movie,
but entertaining enough to make me feel there is room in the
world for Jack Ryan. Welcome to the 21st century Jack
Ryan.
