Jack Ryan is rebooted for the second time
in this latest
origin story about Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) as he goes to be a soldier due to
September 11th, 2001 and ends up injured during active duty and gets
a job offer from the CIA (Kevin Costner as
Thomas Harper aka Jack’s mentor) to end up an undercover CIA
agent working in Wall Street tracking economic transactions. Jack spots
some unusual activity from a big
Russian business run by Victor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh). He is soon ordered
by the CIA
to make a visit to Russia
where Cherevin isn’t taking any chances his big act of economic terrorism is
discovered (before it is too late).
Complicating Ryan’s mission is his girlfriend Cathy taking a surprise
trip to see him in Moscow.
JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT
is an entertaining spy thriller where I think the plan of bombing Wall Street
to bring about the Second Depression (with the combination of short selling the
US Dollar) is very Hollywoodlike (the combo of the two things) and the economic
terrorism plan would have been fine without making things go boom. However,
they need some type of explosion to
lure the audience in for this type of movie, but I would have been satisfied
without the big chase and trying to make things not go boom climax. I
do believe the economic terrorism angle of
selling stocks and currency is an all too real reality given the economic
stress the world is in and many countries being deeply in debt as they try to
maintain the economy through various Ponzi schemes. Despite the climax
being built up more than
it needed to be, I did rather enjoy JACK RYAN:
SHADOW RECRUIT. Keneth Branagh directed
a tight and nuanced thriller for the 21st century with a good cast
and Branagh managing to go toe to toe with any of the actors in it (whether it
is Chris Pine of Keira Knightley).
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Audio commentary by Kenneth Branagh and Lorenzo
di
Bonaventura
Deleted and extended scenes (with optional audio
commentary)
includes scenes cut for pacing and a smaller alternate ending (which they found
out they needed a bigger ending)
Featurettes:
JACK RYAN: THE SMARTEST
GUY IN THE ROOM- re-imagining the Jack Ryan
character while staying true to the character
SIR KENNETH BRANAGH: SMARTEST GUY IN THE ROOM-
Kenneth and the cast and crew discuss how Kenneth works as a director and an
actor in addition to his methods as both
JACK RYAN: A THINKING MAN
OF ACTION- the stunt work of JACK RYAN:
SHADOW RECRUIT
OLD ENEMIES RETURN- the history of the conflict
between the
Russians/ Soviets and the USA since World War 2 with interviews from the
experts on the conflict and clips from three of the Jack Ryan films (THE HUNT
FOR RED OCTOBER, THE SUM OF ALL FEARS, and
JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT)
Featurettes (on Target bonus blu-ray disc):
PLOTTING A GLOBAL THRILLER- using the UK
to double for New York and Moscow,
filming on soundstages in Pinewood, and location filming in New
York City and Moscow
to add additional authenticity.
AMERICAN SPYCRAFT- all about the CIA,
their role during the Cold War and after 9/11, and the CIA
being human “actionable” intelligence
FINAL ANALYSIS:
JACK RYAN:
SHADOW RECRUIT isn’t a bad action reboot even though sometimes it is a little cookie
cutter at times. The cast is likeable and
Kenneth Branagh plays his best Bond-type villain. Too bad Paramount
had to split off two featurettes for a Target only bonus disc, but the
featurettes about the history of the Russian/ American conflict and the CIA
are the best featurettes in the set.
This review is ©6-15-2014
David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments
to feedback@enterline-media.com
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