Spurred into action by the events of Sept. 11, 2001 young Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) quits University and joins the Marines. On a tour of duty in Afghanistan, Ryan is badly injured in a helicopter crash.
During his many months of rehabilitation he manages to fall in love with his doctor Cathy (Keira Knightley) and be recruited to the CIA by Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner), who was impressed by his ability to recognize patterns, noted in his reports.
After rehabilitating and completing his PhD, Dr. Ryan takes a covert job on Wall Street, looking for terrorists moving money. When unusual account activity requires Ryan to go to Moscow to audit a company run by Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh, who also directed the film), Ryan has to transition from analyst to operative when someone attempts to kill him.
When his fiance Cathy, who doesn’t know Ryan’s in the CIA, arrives in Moscow for a romantic surprise, things get complicated.
We say, “Shadow Recruit could have been better.”
HOWE: There are a few things in a movie that I look for. I enjoy a good thriller, a good action movie, and a good cast. Shadow Recruit should have worked on all three counts, yet it didn’t. It was pretty predictable in its plot. We have seen this type of storyline before and done better. As for the action, there are a couple of exciting scenes but again it’s filmed so close up you can’t really see what is happening.
TAYLOR: I’ll agree that the action was too close and that it was predictable, even silly at points. I’ll have to dock some points for the sometimes unbelievable plot points Shadow Recruit would have me accept. If the film had meant itself to be a straight-up popcorn action flick, I probably wouldn’t have, but the Jack Ryan stories are meant to be taken seriously. They’re political, global in scale and are supposed to be cloak and dagger drama. The fact that the producers, who have been wanting to reboot Jack Ryan since 2002, wish to create a draw for a younger audience by adding a motorcycle chase or otherwise ratcheting -up the action doesn’t do anything to help the franchise. The only reason to do so is to make more money from a target audience, while fundamentally changing what Tom Clancy meant the character to be. It works fairly well, but don’t be expecting the Jack Ryan you came to know and love.
HOWE: Also add Chris Pine to the movie to pull in a younger audience. Branagh is great as the unemotional Russian, but then again what would you expect from one of Britain’s finest? Then there is she who is not quite as good, Knightley. Can someone please tell me why she lands biggish roles? She can’t act. She talks through clenched teeth and always looks like a startled cheese grater.
— Howe gives Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit 2.5 fake American accents out of 5.
— Taylor gives it 2.5 computer solutions out of five.
The film is currently showing at Galaxy Cinemas in Vernon.
—Brian Taylor and Peter Howe are film reviewers based in Vernon. Their column, Reel Reviews, appears in The Morning Star Fridays and Sundays.
