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The Hunt for Red October

The Hunt for Red October

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Can't say I was too impressed
Review: I am basing this opinion purely on the fact that I kept dozing off during the "tense" sequences. Who decided that Sean Connery should play a Russian submarine captain (and yet keep his Scottish brogue)?

Another question kept posing itself while watching this film: whatever happened to Alec Baldwin's career? The last truly gripping performance I saw him give was ten minutes long in Glengarry Glen Ross. (Before that? Miami Blues.) I think the reason lies in two words: Kim Basinger. Now I don't know anything about their home life but I do know that they should never have made any films together.

But anyway, this movie did nothing for me. I didn't care about the characters or the situations. Jack Ryan seemed a little too smart sometimes and way too stupid others. Maybe that's just Baldwin. Harrison Ford has an innate intelligence that even carries through into dumb movies (Six Days, Seven Nights, anyone? I didn't think so). We'll see what Ben Affleck does with it.

I seem to keep rambling, but maybe that's because I can't remember much about the movie, always a bad sign. I don't know who is at fault. John McTiernan has directed better films before and after. And we all know Connery and Baldwin can act. So it must be the script, right? Well, only a brilliant scriptwriter can transcend the source material, so I point my finger at Tom Clancy's novel.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not for Progressive Scan DVD Players
Review: This is one of my favorite movies, however for those of us with Progressive Scan DVD players and HDTVs, the Widescreen Letterbox format will not be displayed properly. You will have to resort to an S-Video connection (lower quality than progressive scan) since most HDTVs do not allow an Aspect Ratio adjustment for non-anamorphic widescreen DVDs. In short, look for Widescreen-Anamorphic DVDs for the highest picture quality.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Silent And Deadly
Review: Don't be misled by the name of the review, it has to do with the submarines in the movie. The Soviets have developed a new sub that runs virtually silent. Sean Connery is the captain of the sub, and has been deemed insane and dangerous, and may fire nukes on the US. Alec Baldwin plays Dr. Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst, who's called in to help the Americans. He thinks that Connery is planning to defect and the Soviets made up the story of him being insane to prevent his sub from ending up in our hands.
This is a great naval thriller, but it takes a higher level of intelligence to completely appreciate this film. This movie will keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THRILLING! ACTED TO PERFECTION!
Review: A great film. Fast paced and riveting. Sean Connery is, as always, superb. Baldwin is good as Jack Ryan (the character Harrison Ford would bring to life in PATRIOT GAMES and CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER). Buy it. A great addition! Grade: A+

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Best of the three
Review: I loved this film and would recomend it to anyone. I have read a few of Tom Clancy's books and it is one of his best stories behind "without remorse". Alec Baldwin is perfect in the part and in my oppinion should have played Jack Ryan in the other two films, but that is not to say that Ford was terrible in the role. The good acting throughout the film by all the cast makes it a very absorbing film to watch and not at all tedious.
It does, however, seem a shame to depart from the book in a few places just to make it more "America wins the day" kind of a film. If you read the book, like i have you will realise that the British Navy plays a small part in the story and, indeed, Ryan flies out to HMS Invincible first before his mad dash to catch USS Dallas!. But i am nit picking and i love this film even though, you have to say, it is not a classic in the Shawshank Redemption league, but there aren't any other films to live up to that one either.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: best of the series
Review: Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery are a great pair, and this movie is the best of the trilogy

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Best Submarine movie ever ...so far2002.
Review: Sean Connery leads and all star cast with a purpose. They all hold up their end of it too.! Truely, like lightening striking.

I cannot recommend this enough.

Based on a book by Tom Clancy (same name book) who has lectured at CIA and been a walk away winner on celebrate 'Jepoardy'against the Fmr. White House Press secretary, and a another brainiac.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Great Film But UGH!
Review: firstly this is more of a rant than a review....

the movie is great one of my favourites which was the reason in me buying this dvd, i own it on vhs. there i was expecting a remastered picture with enhanced sound but.....

WHAT HAPPENED! paramount have just transferred the movie from film to disc with no cleanups whatsoever! the picture is grain ridden and the colours are bland, in fact i get a better picture on my vhs version. add to that the bare bones features [1 measley trailer], which is normal for most paramount movies being reproduced. dear oh dear, i wouldn't have minded about the lack of features if they had only cleaned up the picture and sound, but the haven't and i'm left with one of my favourite movies in which the representation is worse than the vhs version.

another paramount rip off!

the film gets 4 stars but i'm going to have to give this dvd a big fat 1 star for poor presentation and lack of features, don't waste your cash folks, keep your vhs version if you have it, you'll get a better picture and sound and better value for your money.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A superb production
Review:


This movie, The Hunt for Red October, is a magnificent piece of fiction by the master storyteller Tom Clancy. In it, the redoubtable Sean Connery plays the defecting Lithuanian Soviet submarine commander of a new, larger, better Typhoon class Soviet submarine with a new, virtually silent propulsion system. The initial tongue-in-cheek subscript in the movie makes the statement that both the United States and the Soviet Union have denied that such an incident as is portrayed ever took place. The obvious implication, of course, is that in fact it did and that both sides are lying.

The movie has two heroes: Sean Connery as a heroic defector from the Soviets and, for the United States, Alec Baldwin. James Earl Jones plays an astute American admiral. The film was directed by John McTiernan, and the combined effort makes for a story of thrilling suspense.

Actually, the story IS a mixture of fact and fiction. To some extent it mirrors the tragedy of the loss of the United States submarine, the U.S.S. Thresher (SSN 593) which took place on April 10, 1963. It was lost in the Atlantic near the final scene depicted in the movie, the Laurentian Abyssal Plain, with a loss of life of 129 men due to, it is thought, a faulty pipe joint in the engineering spaces. It, too, was a new, bigger, better atomic submarine with a very quiet propulsion system on its maiden voyage. There the similarity ends. There was no Russian involvement.

Clancy, however, did use a factual case as the inspiration for his story, according to the History channel's "History Undercover." There was an actual case of a mutiny on a Soviet destroyer, led by the political officer, whose intent was to sail the ship to Leningrad and make an inflammatory speech on the radio to the Russian people, on the anniversary of the mutiny on the Russian warship "Potemkin," in which the ship was taken over by revolutionaries during the Russian revolution of 1918. The mutiny was thwarted, however, and the Russian officer who perpetrated it was executed. His intent was not to defect, as he was an ardent communist, but to lead a revolution against the corrupt Soviet regime and make communism better.

The Hunt for Red October is first class entertainment, but entirely fictional as the author will attest.

Joseph H. Pierre, USN (Ret)



Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Sub-perb performance from Alex Baldwin
Review: If you like suspense and military films, The Hunt for Red October has it all. Add crisp direction, a great plot and top-notch performances from Alex Baldwin and Sean Connery and you have a film that is worth watching over and over.

The story is intricate--is the scholarly Russian (actually Lithuanian) submarine captain going to defect or is something more sinister going on? The interplay and guessing games between the experienced sub captain, his suspicious officers and the military analyst played by Baldwin is conducted with a masterful hand.


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