Movie Review: Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
A new beginning for an old hero, reborn young.
Jack’s name, well-known because of the movies fandom and Tom Clancy’s authorship, is also of ananomaly: granting he’s a spy working for the CIA, he’s not really 007.
In “The Hunt for the Red October”, Jack, played by Alec Baldwin, matches wits with a defected Russian submarine captain played by Sean Connery (the movie grossed $200 million worldwide, well over its $30 million budget). By “Patriot Games”, Mr. Baldwin is dismissed by Harrison Ford, and the new, slightly older Jack goes against the IRA ($45 million budget did $178 million business). Mr. Ford’s Jack then takes on the Colombian drug cartel that were a “Clear and Present Danger” to the United States and the box office grosses tallied $215 million for a budget of $62 million. By “The Sum of All Fears”, a fine, intelligent, spectacle that had bad-timing written all over its fate because of September 11, Ben Affleck puts on Jack’s suit against nuclear threats and neo-Nazis; made in $68 million, the final worldwide theatrical figures clocked just a few million short of $200.
Now, the reason why I am indulging in this brief history lesson is because people often neglect Jack’s popularity, or at times, forget about the character because of his recasting. (Nothing against, Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Ford or Mr. Affleck).
With “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit”, Paramount and producers Mace Neufeld (who made all four movies in the franchise), are perceptive enough to place Jack’s name in the forefront, creating, what I hope will be, brand-awareness.
Slightly side-stepping the time frame, this is Jack’s second reboot (the last one was “The Sum of All Fears”), and to keep it pertinent, some swashbuckling is added as an extra-measure to boost the franchise’s new blood. Jack, now played by Chis Pine, is a young student who enlists in the army after the September 11 attack, and gets critically injured on a mission in Afghanistan. In his rehab, he is picked up by Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner) of the CIA – who apparently has no issues telling a civilian that he’s from the agency. Here Jack also meets his future-wife Cathy Muller (Keira Knightly), who very later in the movie, he straightforwardly tells is working for the CIA (her exclamation is “Thank god. I thought you were having an affair”).
The villains are the usually dependable Russians. Viktor Cheverin (Kenneth Branagh, also the director), with support from a few embittered Russian politicians, is controlling trillions of dollars with plans to bringing down the American economy. Dastardly deeds indeed that are quickly found by Jack who is undercover in a Wall Street brokerage.
“Shadow Recruit” is very sprightly, with its 105 minute running time. Written without grandeur and restrained big-budget pageantry (there is an action-climax by the end), the pacing has writer David Koepp’s imprint more than Mr. Branagh’s (the movie also credits Adam Cozad, whose script served as the basis of “Shadow Recruit”).
Mr. Koepp, for the un-introduced, is the writer-director of the revved up “Premium Rush”, and his screenwriting resume is made up of blockbusters from “Jurassic Park”, its sequel “The Lost World” to “Mission: Impossible”, “War of the Worlds”, “Spider-Man” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”. Mr. Koepp’s style is often about low-key scenes that have a tendency to step away from hammering the psyche, and this factor, (and the not so overbearingly seriousness of other Jack Ryan movies), is sufficient for “Shadow Recruit’s” not-so-out-of-the-box plot outline.
Mr. Branagh, who is as proficient in Shakespearean drama as he is about myth and superheroes (Thor), fares well in the movie’s pro forma set-up, giving Mr. Pine a good platform to hit the ground running, while taking a undemonstrative – even nonaggressive – stance with the narrative’s unfolding.
Mr. Branagh, though, is less successful as an actor here, mincing expressions to a superficial, but perfunctory role-play – a peculiarity he shares with Ms. Knightly. Mr. Costner, however, is as fine as Mr. Pine, radiating old school charisma that is a classic necessity for both “stars” and “actors”, who have a tendency to be synonymous with big-budget studio fares.
Lest we forget, this is Mr. Pine’s second reiteration of a popular icon synonymous with a franchise reboot (his first one was Captain James T. Kirk from “Star Trek”).
Like his other movies – including the ho-hum spy-vs-spy in love flick “This Means War” – Mr. Pine’s boyish good looks emit the feel of perceptive intelligence working just a notch below the surface, which is an apt fit for Jack Ryan, whose character and future movies (I hope), will get only smarter – if only within the boundaries of its own formula.
"Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" is released by Paramount and Footprint Entertainment. The movie is rated PG-13 for scenes of action prompted by old-fashioned international terrorists.
Directed by Kenneth Branagh; Produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mace Neufeld, David Barron and Mark Vahradian; Written by Adam Cozad and David Koepp (based on characters created by Tom Clancy); Cinematography by Haris Zambarloukos; Edited by Martin Walsh.
Starring: Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh and Keira Knightley.