Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

It's not a total collapse, as is being said everywhere, but it's hard to decide who has a bigger stake in this "failure." Is it Cozad and Koepp, fulfilling the studio task of a fashion reboot of the brand, or Branagh, whose old-school efforts are slipping through his fingers, where he can capture characters and interactions in minimal space (the glimpse of Keira at dinner is a scene you'd love to direct and even more love to act out), but the thriller concept escapes him into an interchangeable genre spectacle without much ambition. (07/13/2015)

This central almost-married couple wants to be as witty and genuine as the one from MI3, but they can’t. The action wants to be as intense and raw as in Bourne series, but it's not it. Kenneth Branagh is having a lot of fun, that's true, and Kevin Costner as a mentor, how else, right? Well, there's nothing more to say about this overall average thriller with poorly executed action scenes. (08/09/2014)

Actually, the only interesting thing about Jack Ryan is the creepy armchair rightism without a shred of self-reflection. Not only is there not really much to justify the hero's reasons for superiority – he's smart, he's pretty muscular, but so are his opponents in the film, and he only wins because he's more strongly committed to service of his country – but more importantly, all the US security forces here look adorably harmless, especially thanks to the presence of a bored and fatherly Costner. While the focus of the virtually identical Spy Game also didn't address the controversies surrounding the agents and their actions, it nevertheless pointed them out and constructed a point of view. Here, Chris Pine is a constantly whining young man in the snares of the big game, who has little choice throughout the film yet seems untroubled by it, a bit reminiscent of a noodle in a lunch pail. All the while, he manages to constantly grope his girl and cast doe-eyed glances throughout the entirety of the film like it's not fair, but someone has to do it. The most fun, though, is the final shot, which is identical to the first Godfather. It's where Al Pacino closes the door on his wife and she finally realizes how her life has been pushed to the margins. Here, it’s the viewer the door closes on and the ones standing behind it are the president (with a subtle Southern accent) and CIA agents. (05/17/2014)

The new Ryan does credit to the thrillers of twenty years ago. Which might of course be hard to digest for today’s viewer. Branagh has come up with a relatively untraditional way to destroy America which makes some sense, but those who didn’t graduate in economics won’t be care. It’s maybe a shame that the action scenes are so ordinary, but all is made up for by Keira Knightly’s huge, beautiful peepers. Costner makes the most of his comeback, Pine as Ryan super cool. Rattled or heroic – he’s on top of his role. (05/11/2014)

It's a shame how much effort they put into making Jack Ryan resemble his genre relatives. In close combat like Jason Bourne, in villainous plots like James Bond, and in dragging his partner into it like Ethan Hunt. But when these three parts are added up, there remains a pleasantly old-fashioned spy ride that has no problem standing on its own feet, yet never finds its own face even for a moment. And that is even more unfortunate given that Chris Pine is always fully successful in the role of the hesitant hero. (02/12/2019)