JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT

Reviewed by Patrick Gibbs

GRADE: B+

Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Keira Knightley and Kenneth Branagh

Screenplay by David Koepp

Directed by Kenneth Branagh

In 1990, The Hunt Red October created the spring blockbuster. Based on the bestselling novel by Tom Clancy, it was more than just a spy movie: it was a new genre that became known as the "techno thriller," incorporating state of the art, real world technology into a fictional action story. The selling point may have been Sean Connery as the Captain of the submarine Red October, but it was the secondary lead that would become the figurehead of this new genre: CIA analyst Jack Ryan, a new kind of spy. Jack Ryan was hardly James Bond: bookish and content to blend into the background whenever possible, Dr. Ryan was more comfortable with a briefcase and a computer than a gun (though he always held his own when the shooting started) and the only "Ryan Girls" were his wife and daughter.

The role was played by Alec Baldwin (after Harrison Ford turned it down because he felt that the Russian sub commander was the true lead, and much to the producers frustration, Kevin Costner turned it down a total of four times because he was too busy with "some movie about Indians."). But when it came time to make a follow up with Ryan taking center stage, Baldwin was unavailable because of an off Broadway play, and Ford had a change of heart (plus a sizable paycheck and added creative control), and he took over the role for two films, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. But creative differences between Ford and Clancy lead to yet another change, and in 2002 flavor of the month superstar Ben Affleck stepped into the role for The Sum Of All Fears, the movie that begat the now popular "franchise reboot." Despite revisionist history that tells us  Affleck bombed out in the role, The Sum Of All Fears was actually a big hit at the box office, in no small part because it's story of a major terrorist attack on American soil, in the form of a nuclear bomb being set off at the Super Bowl, ended up being much more topical then anyone could have foreseen. In the end, despite the film's success, issues of how to adapt Clancy's increasingly unwieldy novels where Ryan became President of the United States to fit Affleck's younger version of the character, combined with the post 9/11 climate and the sudden downward spiral of Affleck's career after a series of high profile flops, lead the Jack Ryan franchise to go cold for more than 10 years.

JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT is the reboot of the reboot, based not on any one novel but instead on "characters created by" Tom Clancy (who passed away before the film's release.) Like the Affleck film, this one starts afresh, giving us a new origin story for the young again title character (played this time by STAR TREK's Chris Pine.). In this version, the 9/11 tragedy leads Jack to join the US Marine Corps, and he suffers a debilitating injury when is chopper is shot down in Afghanistan ( in Clancy's novels Ryan was an ex-marine who had survived a helicopter crash, and this was referenced in the film of RED OCTOBER.). Jack ends up in a military hospital, where he finds himself learning to walk again and falling for a beautiful young med student named  Cathy (Keira Knightley), in her most charismatic and charming performance since SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD.) Jack also attracts the attention of Commander William Harper (Kevin Costner, who finally finished that movie about Indians.) The older man approaches Jack with an offer/request: to continue serving his country by joining the CIA. Jack will finish his education and then go to Wall Street, where he will work covertly for the agency to uncover sources funding terrorist organizations across the globe. Jack accepts, and the story picks up a couple of years later with Jack working for a big wall street investment firm, and in a serious relationship with Cathy, who is unaware of his double life (he can only tell her if they are legally married.).

Jack discovers some suspicious activity in Russia involving a man named Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh, who also directs.). Soon our hero is on his way to Moscow to audit Cherevin, and his training as a marine (not to mention having apparently seen the Bourne trilogy and Casino Royale) comes in handy when he is attacked in his hotel room by a would be assassin.

From here, the plot becomes a tiny bit muddled, though screenwriter David Koepp does his best to make the economic and technical jargon accessible ("Explain it to me like I'm an idiot" Harper tells Jack.).  Suffice to say, Cherevin is up to something, and Jack Ryan must fight the clock to stop a terrorist plot to destroy the U.S. economy.

The film is fast paced and exciting, if less epic and spectacular than the standard set by the franchise in it's heyday. Ultimately the movie rides on the charm and chemistry of it's cast, which would have been enough to carry a far weaker film. Pine and Costner make a great hero and mentor duo, and Knightley generates  sparks with both Pine and Branagh: in fact, this may be the first time the character of Cathy really got her due in a film. Branagh does his best with an underwritten stock character, and though he certainly isn't up there with Clancy's best villains, he's a step up from the silly, cartoon Neo Nazi Alan Bates portrayed in The Sum Of All Fears.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit  is not genuinely great, nor is it anything we haven't seen before,  but it's a very entertaining and even intelligent popcorn flick, and a worthy entry in a series that has featured four different leading men and spanned nearly two and a half decades. Whether the next Jack Ryan adventure stars Chris Pine, or the franchise gets yet another reboot, my fondness for the character and enthusiasm for his ongoing adventures remains solidly intact.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is rated PG-13 for violence, profanity, and some mild sexuality.