My Review of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Movie Series
I finished the Tom Clancy's inspired Jack Ryan movies in preparation for Chris Pine's reboot of the franchaise in Jack Ryan. I really enjoyed them. They are definitely political suspense thrillers, and I can see they are being used a baseline for the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier movie:
The Hunt for the Red October -- I've heard about this movie all of my life, but never gotten around to watch it until now. It was quite thrilling despite the outdated special effects. The dialogue is top notch as well as the acting. I was surprised that Jack Ryan really had somewhat of a supporting role. Alec Baldwin did a decent job in his role, but it was Sean Connery's role that really stole the show. Man, Sean Connery is so memorizing as Captain Marko Ramius. His role as Ramius is right up there with his work in The Untouchables and Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade.
The Hunt for Red October takes place in 1984 and the Soviets create a new nuclear submarine, Red October, that runs silent due to a revolutionary propulsion system. The sub can sneak up on opposing subs and countries, and wipe them out in one stroke without being seen or heard. Russian sub Captain Marko Ramius defects (doesn't believe in the mission and goes against it) and along with some of his crew is taking the sub to the United States. To prevent the Soviets from using the sub to start nuclear war against the U.S. The only person that believes Captain Ramius is defecting is CIA analyst Jack Ryan, and he pretty much risks his life to make sure war doesn't start between the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union. Ryan has to get out of his comfort zone the data desk area to the front lines of the situation.
I was really blown away by the well known supporting cast: Sam Neill, Scott Glenn, James Earl Jones, Tim Curry, Courtney Vance, and Stellan Skarsgård. You get to see a lot of these famous people in their prime, and some of them just barely starting to turn heads in the industry.
Overall, it was a terrific film that I would recommend watching.
Patriot Games -- Alec Baldwin was originally going to be in the film, but due to other circumstances Harrison Ford took over the role as Jack Ryan. Since Ford is far older than Baldwin the screenwriters had to change the script to adapt to an older Jack Ryan character. I still wonder what the movie would've been liked with a young Jack Ryan.
Patriot Games centers on the personal side of Jack Ryan's life. He no longer works for the CIA, but is a professor that gets to travel. Ryan lands himself into the crosshairs when he is lecturing and family are vacationing in London. Things get personal when Ryan kills a criminal trying to save an Ireland political leader. The political game ends up involving Ryan's wife and young daughter. There are house invasions, car accidents, and people's lives at risk. In the end Ryan decides to rejoin the CIA to protect his family and county from these terrorists.
I didn't think the villain was that great despite my love for Sean Bean *shrugs*. I did enjoy seeing Jack Ryan's family. I wasn't a fan of Anne Archer until I saw her work in this franchaise. She actually had a great chemistry with Harrison Ford, and they both had a great family chemistry dynamic with a young Thora Birch. I definitely prefer Archer with Ford rather than Michael Douglass lol. The action sequences were pretty stellar, suspenseful, and weren't outdated. It's great to see practical special effects instead of overly used CGI special effects sometimes.
Overall, this was my least favorite movie of the franchaise. If it didn't have the Ryan family dynamic, then I would have totally hated the film. The Ryan family was beautifully casted, and I love that it focused on the pregnancy cliffhanger near the end. In many ways for me Anne Archer just completed Harrison Ford's performance. It felt like they were married for several years, and they knew each other so well. I really enjoyed Archer's work in the franchaise.
Clear and Present Danger -- This movie is leaps and bounds over Patriot Games in my opinion. The script fit perfectly to an older Jack Ryan as compared to Patriot Games. Jack Ryan is appointed U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Acting Deputy Director, and discovers that he is being kept in the dark by colleagues who are conducting a covert war against drug lords in Colombia with the approval of the President of the United States. There are so many villains in this movie it was intriguing to discover who the true villains were.
There were so many plot twists in this movie that it leads to an amazingly acted scene between Jack Ryan/Ford and the U.S. President/Donald Moffat. It is a scene that I always saw snippets of when I was younger, but I never knew the context of the scene until now. You see Jack Ryan is a character that is pretty much a boy scout. He has morals, ethics, and believes in telling the truth even when others say to quite down. In Clear and Present Danger you see what makes Jack Ryan a terrific character. Once again he goes to the front lines to make things right under his leadership. It nearly costs him his life several times. It's a terrific story that I couldn't stop watching from beginning to end. I honestly rank this movie on par with The Hunt for Red October.
The action sequences were top notch from exploding vehicles to the very first computer war onscreen. The movie also had a stellar supporting cast with Willem Dafoe, Donald Moffat, James Earl Jones, Anne Archer, Henry Czerny, Harry Yulin, Benjamin Bratt, and Ted Raimi. So many people that were just starting or continuing their success in the Hollywood industry. It's interesting I first saw Henry Czerny in the tv show Revenge (which he is amazing in) and I'm discovering older movies with him in it, and he is just amazing in them as well. Once again I truly loved seeing Anne Archer and Harrison Ford working together. It was also cute to see Jack Ryan Jr. as a toddler since I heard so much about his character in the 90's.
Overall, this movie was top notch and I would totally recommend it.
The Sum of All Fears -- This was the studio's first attempt in rebooting/restarting the franchaise with Ben Affleck taking over the role as a young Jack Ryan. The film is set back in 1984 (before The Hunt of Red October), but you wouldn't really know it lol. There wasn't much props to depict the 1980's decade as compared to other time period pieces like Argo and Super 8.
Despite the lack of props the storyline is really good. You pretty much see how Jack Ryan became an important CIA analyst. The movie once again centers on the paranoia of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Director of Central Intelligence Bill Cabot recruits a young analyst from the Russia desk named Jack Ryan to supply insight and advice. Then the unthinkable happens: the capital of Chechnya is leveled by a nuclear bomb. The United States is quick to blame the Soviets, and mistrust escalates despite Ryan's certainty that other players are at work. One thing that makes Ryan an interesting character is that Tom Clancy loved to focus on Jack Ryan's instincts about people through data and background knowledge. So it is no mistake that Jack Ryan is right in this movie.
Unknown to both countries' leaders terrorists are bent on provoking open war between the two nations. The terrorists are moving behind the scenes to manufacture and escalate the conflict to nuclear war. The unthinkable happens, and it is up to Jack Ryan to supply the needed proof to stem the tide of disaster in time. There isn't a lot of action sequences as compared to the previous films, but it totally makes up later in the film.
Once again the film has an amazing supporting cast with Morgan Freeman, James Cromwell, Liev Schreiber, Colm Feore, and Ciarán Hinds. The only thing that didn't truly work for me was the casting of Catherine Miller (soon to be Mrs. Jack Ryan). I love that they kept her doctor profession, but the chemistry between Ben Affleck and Bridget Moynahan just wasn't there as compared to Harrison Ford and Anne Archer.
Overall, the movie did a great job with the prequel setting of the franchaise. I thought Ben Affleck was a terrific Jack Ryan, and was leaps and bounds over Alec Baldwin's portrayal in The Hunt for Red October. I remember the reaction to this movie was mixed at the time due to the love of the previous Jack Ryan movies. However, after seeing all of them I felt The Sum of All Fears was a very good representation of Jack Ryan's character.
I would totally recommend seeing this movie at least once.
After watching the entire franchaise I really grew to love the Jack Ryan character from his beliefs to his family. I really enjoyed Tom Clancy's political suspense thrillers moreso than I could imagine truthfully. I'm curious to see how they reboot this franchaise again with Chris Pine (in the title role), Kenneth Branagh, Keira Knightley, and Kevin Costner in the upcoming movie. I wonder how modern they will take Jack Ryan's character. I just hope how modern they get it doesn't hurt Ryan's character like what happened to Superman's morals and ethics in Man of Steel. Jack Ryan is a boyscout, but please please Hollywood don't destroy his beliefs, morals, and ethics. I'm hoping they stay true to him like Marvel/Disney did with Captain America.
Thus far I rank the Jack Ryan franchaise as followed:
1. The Hunt for Red October tied w/ Clear and Present Danger (I can't pick one over the other lol)
2. The Sum of All Fears (it's totally underrated!!)
3. Patriot Games