(Field of Dreams, Sneakers, The Sum of All Fears, The Woo Woo Kid, TV: Band of Brothers)
Producer:
Mace Neufield
Screenplay:
Paul Attanasio and Daniel Pyne (based on the novel by Tom Clancy)
Music:
Jerry Goldsmith
Cast:
Jack Ryan: Ben Affleck
DCI William Cabot: Morgan Freeman
President Fowler: James Cromwell
Admiral Pollack: Ken Jenkins
John Clark: Liev Schreiber
National Security Advisor Revell: Bruce McGill
Defense Secretary Becker: Philip Baker Hall
President Zorkin: Richard Marner
Dr Cathy Muller: Bridget Moynahan
President Nemerov: Ciaran Hinds
Thanks to a fight in 1973 where Egypt and Syria fought
against Israel,
the outnumbered side sent out one plane containing their single nuclear bomb.
It didn't arrive at its target, but 29 years later someone was around to dig
it up. As luck would have it, it's about to fall into the wrong hands.
Just after a nuclear arms inspection, during which Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck)
deduces that three of the technicians aren't where they're supposed to be,
all our American heroes get the call that Russia are up to no good once again,
dropping bombs on Chechnya and spreading chemical nerve agents around, presumably
having learned how to do this from Saddam Hussein. Was it really them or was
it this splinter group with their new toy? Not difficult to work out, is it?
CIA analyst Jack Ryan has to go out into the field with one of their men who's
more into this kind of action, John Clark (Liev Schreiber), but things
tend to take far too long to get to this point with old-fashioned talk about
what baddies the Russians are and that they can't be trusted, so much so that
it starts to get pretty boring.
Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of films in which I'll enjoy talkie
scenes before the action comes in - it's just that you should make it relevant
and not something that we can easily take as a given. It also gets a bit
tiresome how old-hand DCI William Cabot (Morgan Freeman) tries to
tease the newbie. We've been here too many times before and there's also an
iffy comment early on from Morgan Freeman about how he's not as bothered about
the man who has 27,000 nuclear bombs under his control - i.e. America - just
the man who has one.
And this is the fake moustache
we found in Saddam's bunker.
Now onto the casting of Jack Ryan. Apparently Harrison Ford didn't want to do
another one, but they could've gone back to Alec Baldwin.
Those in charge decided that even though the film is set in the present day,
they should bring the main character into the plot as a new recruit only a
year out of college and with a girlfriend, Cathy Muller (Bridget Moynahan),
no doubt to be shaped into his wifely Cathy Ryan character. Maybe I've missed
something - and I certainly don't read books - but it just doesn't work as well
as it should.
Things do pick up in the second half when World War III looks imminent, but
it's too little too late. This is a movie you should watch if you must see
the continuing adventures of Jack Ryan, or perhaps how they began in a strange
paradox kind of way, but don't make it your first choice in the video store.
The Ben Affleck issues aside, the rest of the cast are fine if generally
pedestrian. James Cromwell only seems to play roles of authority since
he looks about twenty years older than he actually is, I can't take Ken Jenkins
seriously as presidential aide Admiral Pollack due to the fact that he also
plays Dr Bob Kelso in the excellent US sitcom Scrubs - which was remade
by BBC2 as the execrable TLC - and Ciaran Hinds, looks smarmy
enough to play Russian President Nemerov, taking over from the previous top man,
Zorkin (Richard Marner, aka the fat old German colonel in Allo Allo).
Hinds also has as leathery a face as Michael Portillo, making for slightly
uncomfortable viewing.
Last year
a game also based on this film
was released, but having now seen this film it's clear they only wanted the
name because the two are in no way related, apart from that it has a similar
game engine to other Tom Clancy computer outings.
Listen, I'm the President.
If Anthony H Wilson can have a
table suspended from the ceiling, then so can I.
There's no problems with the picture or sound. The film is presented in an
anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen ratio with no noticeable blemishes and looks clean
and clear throughout with some lovely shots of Russia near the start.
There's Dolby Digital 5.1 sound in English and Czech, which is effective for
the nuclear explosions, but most other things are a little on the sombre side.
The extras aren't plentiful but cover a few bases:
A Cautionary Tale (30 mins):
Split into two halves and presented in anamorphic 16:9 widescreen, with
anamorphic 2.35:1 film clips, as all the cast and main crew waffle on about
how splendid the script was and how it could turn into a great film. Must've
been a different film than the one on this disc.
Visual Effects (28 mins):
or "How Things Were Blown Up". I won't give details about what was turned into
mincemeat as that would be to spoil such scenes.
Trailer (2 mins):
In 16:9 letterbox.
Audio commentaries:
Two of them. One from director Phil Alden Robinson and cinematographer
John Lindley, the other from the director plus novelist Tom Clancy.
Why not just get all three together in the same room?
The main menu is animated and scored, there's not enough chapters with just
17 and subtitles come in 12 languages:
English (and hard of hearing), Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch,
Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish and Turkish.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
