Rating: 
Summary: I'm so sick of Ben Affleck
Review: Ben Affleck a CIA analyst? Yeah, and I'm a Chinese jet pilot. He is as dumb as a fence post, so how can they expect him to pass as an analyst? Why is Hollywood bombarding us with this guy? He is a terrible actor and a terrible leading man. If I have to see one more movie where Ben Affleck saves the world (Pearl Harbor), I'm going to puke. Did they change the entire plot just to fit him into this film? This movie barely even resembles the book at all. The plot, if you can call it that, is a joke. The cowardly producers decided it was more politically correct to change the terrorists from Muslim extremists to Neo Nazis. Hmmmmmmmm. While all the rest of us are worried about the real radical Islamist threat, this movie is obsessed with Neo Nazis and Russians. Oh, and you've got to love the ease of which the Russians were able to surprise/hit a U.S. Aircraft Carrier, which is the most well protected ship in the world. Total nonsense. Just one of the many holes in this swiss cheese story. Don't waste your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a movie for Tom Clancy fans
Review: It was not a bad movie - and could have been a pretty good movie if it hadn't been for the title. I made the mistake of reading the book first; something the writers obviously had not done! They took a pretty good book and turned it into a farce of a movie. Take a book character described as a hard-nosed, mature,no-nonsense hard charger; turn him into an immature, inexperienced callow youth, add lots of explosions and noise and you have the essence of the movie. Not a movie for Tom Clancy fans!
Rating: 
Summary: A great escape...
Review: "Sum" thrilled us and kept us on the edge of our seats. As usual, we ignored the ratings of the "professional" reviewers...and were glad we did. While this is no academy award nominee, it provided a great afternoon escape that was well worth our time. If you enjoy roller coaster rides, you'll like this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Watch Your Back Jack
Review: The latest Jack Ryan novel to be adapted for the big screen, THE SUM OF ALL FEARS, takes a step back in order to go forward. When Harrison Ford, bowed out of the chance to play Ryan again, the producers had to recast the role. Hero Jack Ryan is now played by Ben Affleck. Due to the casting change, the story picks up early in his job as a CIA analyst, and before his marrige to Cathy Muller (Bridget Moynahan). When world events dictate Ryan be brought into to assist a member of the President's (James Cromwell) cabinet, John Cabot (Morgan Freeman), things between Russia and the U.S erode toward nuclear war. Thanks to a neo Nazi, who is really pulling the strings, a nuke is detonated in Baltmore MD.. I never read the book, by Tom Clancy, therefore I can not compare and contrast the book to the film. Since the author is a producer on the film, I would think that he approved any changes. As a film, it's pretty good, but not great. Affleck is ok as the title character. I gotta give him credit for taking the role. After all, he had some mighty big footsteps to follow, and he aquits himself fine. There are some nice moments between Moynahan and Affleck. However, the best performance in the film, comes from Freeman. No matter what the film is, if he is in it, he always elevates the material. Given the state of our world today, the scene of the bomb blast, now seems all too real. It is definately uncomfortable to watch and will most likely make you shudder in your seat. Recent events make the movie more topical than it was probably intended The film takes some artistic freedoms during its second half that bothered me. For example, I doubt that cell phones would work that well after a radioactive blast. Normally, I wouldn't even care about something like this, but since it happens more than once, it's impossible to ignore. There are a few other moments like this throughout the film's latter half that gnawed at me. I have no problem seeing this film so soon after Sept.11, I think it never hurts to be reminded of what did happen and could happen again. Directed by Phil Alden Robinson, SUM, is a good film that gets away from plausabilty for a bit. I know it's only a film but even movies like this should be held to a certain standard. I really miss Ford here but I can live with Affleck. If you are a Clancy/Jack Ryan fan, I recommend the film, for all others, its marginally recommended 3 and half stars
Rating: 
Summary: The Russians?
Review: This movie had an interesting plot to it. Russians are blamed for a bomb that went off in the U. S. Well, if you actually paid attention you would have noticed an important clue to what actually happened... A historian, Jack Ryan is picked to help, because he knows a bit about the new Russian president. He must fight two battles, between his girlfriend and his mission, constently having to leave in the middle of 'dates.' Also a bomb is being built by three Russian scientists who are later found dead. Later, when Ryan discovers that Russia didn't plant the bomb, he tries to get in touch with the American president. When he does, he must try to convince him that the Russians aren't responsible for this act, because the prez. is going to launch a bomb at Russia. This movie was good, with plenty of action, even if it was a little confusing in the beginning.
Rating:
Summary: BOMB
Review: Look out! Its a Bomb! The movie that is... Did Clancy really write this? Its absurd, really poorly timed, and NOT suspensful.
Rating:
Summary: Did it Really need Affleck??
Review: It wasn't a bad movie, but did they really have to have Ben Affleck,play Jack Ryan? , I would have rather seen an old Harrison Ford or another action actor, than him. He may be okay for some silly love movie, but not as an action star.
Rating: 
Summary: Too painful but also too implausible:SPOILERS
Review: I went to see SUM this past weekend with a strange mixture of anticipation and ambivalence. I like Ben Affleck (but he is no Harrison Ford). I like Morgan Freeman (but he is no James Earl Jones). I like action movies (but usually find Tom Clancy too hardware and acronym obsessed). Doesn't a movie about terrorism (admittedly made before 9/11) trivialize a national tragedy? I don't think this movie works ... If the villians had been left Middle Eastern (as they were in the book),the producers might never have released the movie at all. If the theory is that this is just a movie and not an accidental documentary, it has to be different enough to make people comfortable watching it. Why do you think so many producers chose to eliminate scenes with the World Trade Center Towers after 9/11? Because seeing the WTC pulls the viewer into reality and destroys the momentum of the movie experience. The movie doesn't work because the plot developments in the first half of the movie are completely disregarded in the second half. Ben Affleck is completely convincing as the CIA desk jockey - some of the best scenes are those with his co-analysts and I can buy the language fluency and the research expertise. But his run through the burning streets of Baltimore and his fight with the terrorist on the docks just don't ring true. It feels too much like a staged fight, without weight or menace. I don't know what Harrison Ford's secret is, but you always feel that even though he is no super hero he has the guts or brawn to play out a violent encounter. Ben is still too "light" in action scenes. If there are going to be more Jack Ryan films (and Ben deserves another shot at this role), this needs seriously to be fixed. The technology-based part of the plot also has holes you could drive a tank through. The CIA director doesn't notice his cell phone going off because of crowd noise? He is a senior intelligence officer, sitting next to the President, for heaven's sake - don't you think he would be a little more attentive and professional, just by training? After the nuclear detonation, cell phones (or any phones, or anything?!) work, and a helicopter crash is survivable. No one beyond ground zero gets radiation poisoning? The Russians order Stealth aircraft shot down (big duh for that line)? I am willing to suspend disbelief in an action movie, but I can't leave my brain at the door. And finally, the romance element is completely underwritten. A series of Hallmark card romantic encounters set up solely so that the phone can ring and interrupt them. There was no individuality or chemistry to make Jack's sense of loss feel genuine. Even a young doctor has some "doctor-ness" about her, and the actress playing this part made me feel that she was doing just that - playing a part. Watch Ann Archer in the earlier films - she is so different at home and at work. So what kept me in my seat till the credits? Some amazing acting, all the more amazing because there was not much substance to actually portray. Morgan Freeman struggling to supress a smile when Jack's girlfriend hangs up on him after Jack excuses standing her up because he is on a plane to Russia. Liev Schreiber demonstrating the brawn and intelligence that befits an intelligence field operative, especially in the scene in the hospital in Moscow with the mother of one of the missing Soviet nuclear scientists. And Ciaran Hinds - whose expressive face seems full of wisdom and conflict all the way through this movie. He made what could have been a charicature of Russian leaders into a surprisingly sympathetic protagonist. I would not recommend that anyone personally affected by 9/11 see this movie. During the nuclear explosion, the audience became frozen and silent, and a couple of people got up and left quickly. This is just a movie but we all leave the theatre and walk into the reality of 9/11 and its aftermath. For many it is still too soon to see our national fate on a movie screen.
Rating:
Summary: If you liked "Pearl Harbor" you'll love this movie!
Review: What I liked about this movie was Morgan Freeman's acting and that's where it ends. Unfortunately he's not around very long. Besides the laundry list of technically inaccurate scenes (much unlike Clancey's well researched novels) the bad acting, the President and his Laural & Hardy cabinet members, the sad affair between Jack & his girlfriend? Fiancee? girl he just met 3 days ago?, the extremely bad special affects of the nuclear explosion, and the rediculous "politically correct" plot where the mean evil "white guys" want to blow up the world and take over; the movie was a total failure. After Europe, Russia, and America have been annilated how many "white guys" are going to be left to rule the world? This movie should have been left at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. I can't say I'll ever pay to see a Ben Affleck film again!
Rating:
Summary: Summarizing the "Fears"
Review: Have no fear, the "Sum of All Fears" is definitely entertaining. "Fears" tells a fictional story that strays slightly from the novel; however, unlike my expectations, it does the book-to-screen transcription very well. While Ben Affleck does not have the same panache as Harrison Ford or Alec Baldwin, he deserves credit for playing a younger character in age that no one has read about in great detail as of yet. (read the novel, and you will discover that the clock has been turned-back on Jack Ryan's age, considerably)
An excellent cast, great acting, and a believable FICTIONAL story line that wisks the viewer along for a hell of a thrill-ride earns my rating of five stars. Of course, if you want a true edge-of-your-seat-thriller, read the novel written almost a decade ago.
|
