Rating: 
Summary: What's with the hair, Jack?
Review: Ok, ok, so first of all, I thought Ben Affleck wouldn't be a good Jack Ryan after Harrison Ford and Alec Baldwin. I couldn't quite get the fact the characters are all younger than in the previous films and yet, the storyline deals with current history events. They didn't only replace Harrison Ford, but they also replaced Willem Dafoe and Anne Archer for Liev Schrieber and Bridget Moynahan and as a big fan of the previous films, I can't help wondering how would this film would have looked with those older actors in it.But what's done its done and I decided to enjoy this film. I went to see it and I was surprisingly pleased. I think everyone did a great job and as far as the story goes, I think it's good. The story is about a nuclear weapon that was lost in 70s and now it's in the hands of some european terrorists who come up with an elaborate plan to use that bomb in a major US city... But CIA analyst Jack Ryan (in this movie, you could almost see him as a trainee instead) realizes something's wrong. And as a young CIA guy, the older people won't listen to him, so of course, he has to prove it all by himself, with a little help of John Clark (Schrieber), some kind of undercover CIA merc. What comes next is one of the finest thrillers in the last few years and I am quite surprised they didn't delayed the release of this movie after September 11th, considering it depicts the worst terrorist act ever imaginable on US soil. Maybe it was because of 9/11 was a rather recent event when I saw this movie, but I was quite touched by this movie and the whole situation it shows. And also it is rather scary to see how easy one of these horrible things can be planned and carried out. But that's the reason this movie works so well, because you can feel it. And if you get a main character as likable as Jack Ryan, the experience is a whole lot better. Ben Affleck is quite good as Ryan, in his own way. He doesn't play a very different Ryan from Harrison Ford's version. You can even see the pillow thing on his hair. And Morgan Freeman is also really good, but what else could you expect from that guy? I mean, he's a wonderful actor. All in all, it does have some mistakes, or at least, I didn't understand a few things... but I guess it is a movie, it's just entertainment, and after seeing some of the things this movie shows, I think the last thing anyone would want is this movie being close to reality.
Rating: 
Summary: A Mixed Bag For A Clancy Techno-Thriller!
Review: Oh, dear! What was Ben Affleck thinking when he signed on to star in the functional equivalent of 'Young Indiana Jones' to a role that has Harrison Ford's hefty paw-prints all over it? Even if the film were a faithful recreation of Tom Clancy's superb and thought-provoking thriller about what happens when an Arab extremist group gains possession of an Israeli nuclear weapon lost during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which it is not, the ploy of giving Jack Ryan the time machine treatment is hokey at best, and ruinous at worst. Luckily, the script is so hackneyed and implausible at parts that it was downright silly. For example, Ryan is taking a helicopter ride when an atomic detonation occurs. The several kiloton blast knocks the chopper out of the sky, but Ryan survives. Right. The blast would have melted the chopper as it knocked from the sky with a heat blast so intense nothing could possibly survive. But Hollywood can't kill off the Ryan franchise by pulling a terminator-like turn and sending Ryan back into the past tot get killed since that would prevent our boy Ben wouldn't mature into becoming Alex Baldwin, who then proceeds to save the free world in "The Hunt For Red October", set later in Ryan's career. Got it? Me neither. Having said all that, had the main character's name not been Jack Ryan, and had I not already read the book and therefore arrived predisposed as to what it was that I was going to see dramatized, the film is not all that bad. As a techno-thriller, it is exciting, well photographed, and has a decent cast, including a charming Morgan Freeman (does this guy never take a vacation?) as Jack's Director of Counter Intelligence (DCI) connection. Lee Garlington is fetching and attractive as Jack's main squeeze, and Live Schreiber is particularly good as a young John Clark, a figure prominent in some of the later Clancy novels. The film is facts paced, has some interesting action sequences, and as an evening's entertainment is worth the watching. It is hardly in the caliber of films such as "The Hunt For Red October", "Patriot Games", or "Clear And Present Danger", but maybe Ben can try again when his paws grow a little with age. Ford is getting alittle long in the tooth to be playing Ryan. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Yow!
Review: Okay. The screen credit reads: "Tom Clancy, Executive Producer". That means that Clancy maybe had a lot to do with this film, right? Here's the story: The Israelies, almost unimaginably, fumble an Atomic bomb. Oy vey! Thirty years later, the bomb is dug up by a bunch of camel-driving hicks from Cabbageville, Egypt and sold to an unscrupulous arms dealer. Then, somebody uses it to blow up the city of Baltimore and start World War III. Who plans and executes this dirty deed? Why none other than our old arch-enemies, the Nazis, of course! Full steam ahead, Mr. Gridley! Dam up the river, and head for the hills! As this highly suspenseful drama unfolds in a series of cartoon-like situations, we see Ben Affleck hamming it up and mugging his way through the film, at a cocktail party in the United States, at a Russian atomic weapons lab, then to Africa, then to Langley, then to Washington, then to Baltimore, then to Washington, then to... Which leads me to the obvious question, Who was the target audience for this film? Phony CIA operatives? Naval Reservist Impersonators? Fidel Castro? A two-bit despot living in exile somewhere? One group of people who will really get excited about this movie are your good old rabid Cleveland Browns fans - because most of them will probably get off on the idea that the evil Art Modell and the Ravens could be vaporized into a cloud of red dust. Browns fans who own this dvd will probably wear out the football segment with subsequent Baltimore apocalypse trying to visualize that happening, as bizarre as that sounds. Even so, this film was so cheezy, the only thing missing from it was a sound track or end credit song by either Dennis DeYoung or Eric Carmen, take your pick. ...
Rating:
Summary: Not the best of its kind, but really good
Review: The Sum of All Fears is a much more disturbing picture than it might have been before September 11, but that just adds to the drama. I'm not a big Ben Affleck fan. And yet, I liked this movie -- there's a strong supporting cast (Morgan Freeman and James Cromwell, specifically) that makes me forgive Ben's blandness. And of course, he's playing Jack Ryan, following in the footsteps of Harrison Ford and Alec Baldwin. It's fun to watch Jack develop. His inexperience here is refreshing, as he once again is put into combat situations he should never be in. On the other hand, the movie wusses out. The bad guys are a coalition of Neo-nazis and other random weird, mean European guys. It just seems fabricated, which is odd when every other aspect of the movie strives to be so accurately detailed. I mean, it's like they gave us the Legion of Doom as a set of villains (psst, that's the worst fear -- the sum of all our little fears put together, get it?). The plan is to force America and Russia into a war of escalation, by setting off strikes that appear to be initiated by the other side. We know now that, even after September 11 with a Republican President who uses words like "Dead or Alive" and "crusade" -- even HE didn't start lobbing nuclear missiles or even ordering strikes on other countries. Still, this is supposed to be a different time (precisely what time, we're not sure, but maybe it's the 1980s) and political tempers flare more easily. Then there's the strange jiggery-pokery played with Ryan's background. If you watch the "making of" on the DVD, the director uses the words "franchise" and "reinvigorate" and...hyuk...hyuk...BLEEEEEARGH! Sorry, I just threw up all over those terms. Obviously, continuity is sacrificed so that they can make more money off of Jack Ryan. He's in good company -- I mean, look what they did with Batman. Oh wait... I do respect the decision not to show the nuclear explosion. The director manages to really keep the tension high. And the budding relationship between Jack and his future wife is believable. When characters die, we feel bad for them. All of that makes it a really good movie. Not the best of its kind, but really good.
Rating: 
Summary: An awe-inspiring, well-conceived thriller
Review: Maybe I'm too easy to please, but I found The Sum of All Fears to be one powerful humdinger of a motion picture. I should point out that I came into this film with no preconceptions; I have not read any of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels, nor have I seen any of the earlier movies starring Harrison Ford in the central role. I can certainly see how major and strange a transition it must be for fans to go from the older Ford to the young Affleck, and the obvious disparity between the film and the book that inspired it would also probably bother me had I previously read Clancy's 1991 novel. I was attracted to this movie for two reasons: one is the plot. Delaying the release of this film in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack was the right thing to do, given the subject matter dealt with here, but it also served to pique my interests in the film. As an old and unrepentant Cold Warrior now viewing the world through eyes permanently rimmed red by the reprehensible actions of cowardly terrorists, the idea of an American-Russian nuclear war brought about by the maneuvering of terrorists definitely spoke to me. The other aspect of the film that appealed to me was the prominent role played by Morgan Freeman. I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again: in my opinion, Morgan Freeman is the greatest actor working today. The complex yet tightly-wound plot of this film is impressive. The sudden death of a Soviet (now Russian) leader still carries with it a significant amount of trepidation in the West, but this film takes such fears to an unprecedented level. The characterization of Russian President Nemerov is, I think, the most crucial element of this entire plot, and it comes off magnificently. Talk about being boxed in against a wall. Try being a new Russian leader already regarded as a hard-liner by basically everyone in the West (except for CIA analyst Jack Ryan) and then have forces that should be under your control but are not attack Grozny, Chechnya, with horrible chemical weapons. No Russian President can admit less than total control of his military. Then have a nuclear bomb go off in a major American city, a tragedy made to look rather convincingly as an act of Russian aggression. Americans are going to respond to such an attack with extreme prejudice. Thus, before you have your new Presidential chair adequately adjusted for your comfort, you're on the brink of nuclear war. Ciaran Hinds deserves all the credit I can give him for his convincing performance as President Nemerov; he (not Affleck, and not even Freeman) makes this motion picture the overwhelming success I think it is. The entire cast of this film is excellent (even Affleck), and so is the production value of everything you see. The special effects are impressive (and it was a treat to see just how they were brought to life in the DVD special features dealing with the visual effects), but these are just the trimmings on the real feast. The meat of The Sum of All Fears is a plot which is compelling, believable, disquieting, and, in the end, rather moving. This movie drew me in completely to its world of intelligence, espionage, deception, politics, and diplomacy, and I could not possibly give it less than five stars.
Rating:
Summary: It was alright, but in the end was weak.
Review: The movie is ok, not one of the best. There are better Jack Ryan movies out there (The Hunt for Red October). The main problem with the movie is it leaves out a ton of stuff mentioned in the book, this was why the book was good. In the end though, I'd only rent this movie, not buy it.
Rating:
Summary: A good movie, but...
Review: This movie is really pretty good. I've given it a three star rating because that is what it deserves. It is a decent movie, no Oscar winner here, but did you really expect that?
Ben Affleck portrays the recurring character of Jack Ryan pretty well, make no mistake, though, he's still Affleck. He's a little to pretty to imagine as a CIA official, but lets not dwell on that.
The plot is good, and Morgan Freeman is excellent as Ryan's superior and friend.
The movie has a lot of romantic and comic relief, so at least it's not 2 hours of intense scenes of Ben Affleck on a Nokia!
Certain parts of the movie aren't extremely believable, but of course, after 9/11 it's hard to imagine that anyone could sneak a bomb anywhere, less a big football game with the President attending.
This wasn't my favorite movie, but if you want to be excited and enjoy a movie for a few hours, this movie will do!
Rating:
Summary: A Movie Less About Fear than about Calculation
Review: When THE SUM OF ALL FEARS was first released, the ads on television kept showing the same sequence again and again: an explosion of a nuclear device in America. Naturally, the audience assumed that this was a movie that had an atomic bomb as the dramatic center, and that the film would focus on the results of that detonation. Instead, what director Phil Robinson presented was a carefully crafted movie that asks the viewer to forget a few things while watching. Robinson uses the unexpectedly fine acting of Ben Affleck, who plays a very junior CIA agent Jack Ryan, to divert the audience's attention from both some hugely noticeable plot gaffes and variations from Tom Clancy's novel. Clancy originally pictured the terrorists as Moslem extremists, and in the pre 9/11 political correctness, Robinson did not wish to alienate our many Moslem friends worldwide by suggesting that any of them could wish harm to America. Instead, he switches the villains to neo-Nazis, since even PC supporters do not hold them in high regard. As one of these German terrorists was expounding his beliefs for the camera, he spoke in the same Teutonic cadences that used to characterize Erich von Stroheim back in the 40s. All that this German failed to do was to stroke his mustache a la Snidely Whiplash. Further, Robinson avoids the consequences of the logic reached by the Nazi terrorists, who believe that when they cause America and Russia to destroy one another in nuclear war, a resurgent regime of national socialism will take root in Germany to control what is left of the world. Unfortunately, neither director Robinson nor these Nazi wannabes have remembered that the thousands of nuclear devices that will surely be used in any massive exchange of weapons of mass destruction must surely prove as harmful to the world at large as it would to the two combatants. Yet it is to Affleck's credit that his youthful earnestness and good looks that he can divert attention from those shortcomings to a more conventional thriller in which a ticking clock is the antagonist. The explosion itself lasts but a few seconds nor does the film focus on its after effects. What the movie does accomplish is to get the viewer involved in the improbable trail of clues that leads Affleck to the terrorists who have convinced the presidents of both the United States and Russia that each is plotting the destruction of the other. The movie shows the inner workings of advisors of both countries. It is not surprising that the American and Russian military leaders are far more alike in a sense of misplaced macho than they are in anything else. Both the American president and his Russian counterpart see an escalating series of confrontations as no more than a game of chicken played out on an international stage, with each daring the other to knock off a chip from their shoulders. By the close of the credits, the audience is left with the uncomfortable feeling that if all that stands between mutually assured nuclear annihilation and world continuity is the grit of such youngsters as Jack Ryan, then the inner message of the film becomes clear enough: if world leaders have to choose between fear and calculation as the basis for planning escalated responses to external aggression, then both leaders had better develop a healthy sense of fear of the consequences that cool calculation might otherwise entail.
Rating:
Summary: **** A PLEASANT SURPRISE ****
Review: The Sum of All Fears is the fourth film and in my opinion best film so far based on Tom Clancy's spy thrillers featuring the ever-reluctant hero Jack Ryan, now played by (a much more age appropriate) Ben Affleck. The plot of this movie revolves around a neo-fascist group, led by a nasty Alan Bates, trying to provoke a nuclear war between Russia and America by exploding a nuclear device on American soil (Baltimore, to be precise). It stars Ben Affleck as a younger Ryan, pre-marriage and pre Hunt For Red October, being taken under the wing of fatherly CIA director Morgan Freeman. I know there have been some very mixed reviews for this movie but much to my pleasant surprise I really enjoyed this movie and found it to be totally gripping and an excellent edge of the seat thriller. The Sum of all Fears is directed by Phil Alden Robinson, who previously directed the wonderful Field of Dreams, and he brings a lot more depth, subtlety and humour to both the characters and the plot development than Phillip Noyce previously managed in either of the last two Ryan movies (Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger), not to mention the other clunkers on Noyce's résumé, including The Saint, Sliver and The Bone Collector (excellent novel, terrible adaptation). In fact it's a wonder this franchise has survived Phillip Noyce and that Noyce still has a career (although apparently his latest movie Rabbit Proof fence is actually very good). As for the cast, I feel that Affleck is a perfect choice and that he has at last found a decent role in a decent movie. Perhaps his first decent role since Good Will Hunting, which he co-wrote with Matt Damon, and certainly much much better than the dreadful Titanic-alike Pearl Harbour. Morgan Freeman is of course reliably excellent as always and has some of the best lines in the whole movie as CIA boss Bill Cabot but there are also other excellent supporting performances from the likes of Liev Schrieber as a covert CIA operative, James Cromwell (as a belligerent U.S. President), Ciarán Hinds as Russian President Nemerov and Alan Bates as the chief villain. However I can't say I was totally convinced with Bridget Moynahan as Ryan's girlfriend, Dr Cathy Mueller. Although one thing's for sure, she is very pleasant to look at and there were some excellent shared scenes between her and Affleck. I just didn't find her very convincing in her white coat playing a surgeon. In summary, I cannot think of a mainstream Hollywood thriller that I've enjoyed so much in a long time and many of the people I know that have also seen this film were equally as thrilled. I can honestly say that it was a pleasant surprise to enjoy this so much and that this is definitely one of the best films I've seen all year. Highly recommended! Four and a half stars.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, lack luster
Review: " . . . Even the typically reticent Clancy would approve."
I beg to differ. The real downfall of this movie lay not in the theatrical performances of Ben Affleck or Morgan Freeman but instead comes from the pre-production studio politics and the implausible, if not laughable, script changes. Making the antagonists of the film Neo-Nazis seems not implausible but in fact makes the film disingenuous and smacks of derivative 1980's film schlock.
(In all seriousness, why would Nazi's really want to blow up the Super Bowl?)
I presume this was done as an attempt to pacify Arab or Muslim defense organizations. Whomever adapted this scripted turned a respectable peace of Clancy's trademark political science fiction into a piece Clive Cussler pulp.
|
