Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)
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Critics Consensus: It doesn't reinvent the action-thriller wheel, but Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit offers a sleek, reasonably diverting reboot for a long-dormant franchise.
Critics Consensus: It doesn't reinvent the action-thriller wheel, but Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit offers a sleek, reasonably diverting reboot for a long-dormant franchise.
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Movie Info
Based on the character created by bestselling author Tom Clancy, "Jack Ryan" is a global action thriller set in the present day. This original story follow a young Jack (Chris Pine) as he uncovers a financial terrorist plot. The story follows him from 9/11, through his tour of duty in Afghanistan, which scarred him forever, and into his early days in the Financial Intelligence Unit of the modern CIA where he becomes an analyst, under the guardianship of his handler, Harper (Kevin Costner). When … More- Rating:
- PG-13 (for sequences of violence and intense action, and brief strong language)
- Genre:
- Drama , Action & Adventure , Mystery & Suspense
- Directed By:
- Kenneth Branagh
- Written By:
- Steven Zaillian , Tom Clancy , Adam Cozad , David Koepp
- In Theaters:
- Jan 17, 2014 Wide
- On DVD:
- Jun 10, 2014
- US Box Office:
- $50.5M
Cast
-
Chris Pine
as Jack Ryan -
Kevin Costner
as William Harper -
Kenneth Branagh
as Viktor Cherevin -
Peter Andersson
as Dimitri Lemkov -
Keira Knightley
as Cathy Muller -
Michael Starke
as Auto-plant Worker
Related News & Features
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New on DVD & Blu-Ray: Non-Stop, Jack Ryan, and True Detective
– Rotten Tomatoes
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Critic Reviews for Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
All Critics (159) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (88) | Rotten (71) | DVD (2)
"Shadow Recruit" is fun in a minor, winter-season way.
I'm aware that commercial and cultural forces require everything to be rebooted triennially with fresher, hotter stars. But this is the second time the Jack Ryan franchise has rejected a youth transplant.
The dim star wattage in this fifth rehash is palpable from the start.
This is the very definition of an OK thriller.
Director Kenneth Branagh knows how to invest the ridiculous with a sort of grandeur - Exhibit A: the surprisingly fun Thor - but Shadow Recruit is more straightforward in nature, so he can't get too fancy.
Branagh runs through all of this efficiently enough, but it feels awfully familiar.
It succeeds on several levels, fails on others, and ultimately offers an acceptable albeit not particularly stand-out restart for the series.
It says something that an actress like Knightley is now taking high profile roles where her biggest moment is getting a light bulb shoved in her mouth while she tries not to cry.
An attractive cast and better-than-average thrills make "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" a lesser, but worthy entry into the series of films based on the late Tom Clancy's characters.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is not the kind of film that Jack Ryan fans would expect, nor is it the kind of film that they or the character deserve.
Briskly paced and doesn't overstay its welcome - which is a good thing, because sometimes it's best to not linger on the plot holes.
A simplistic, vainglorious attempt to reboot a popular literary character featuring two extremes of acting: leaden and scenery-chewing.
It's rare that a movie like this should be longer, but a little elongating might help this clipped, B-grade thriller resonate a little deeper.
Proof that "January junk" no longer applies to every January release.
For a character who has been rebooted three times in five movies, it's a little disappointing they didn't try something new with Jack Ryan in Shadow Recruit. And by "something", I mean "anything".
Chris Pine is perfectly cast as Jack Ryan, the Tom Clancy created hero.
The action comes non-stop and credit director/co-star Branagh with making the film interesting, both with his performance and his guidance.
The nauseating repetition will cause frustrating exhales. The fast cutting frenetic chase sequences feel like they were left on Paul Greengrass' cutting room floor.
Jack Ryan seems neither sufficiently suave nor highly skilled to fully capture our imaginations. After all, he's really just a super banker, whose mission success here depends on downloading data onto his memory stick. Hardly thrilling?
It's one of these vending-machine movies: a good-enough, easily forgettable flick that benefits from selection bias and low expectations.
The plotting is fairly hackneyed, with standard-issue office break-ins and routine car chases, right down to the inevitable ticking bomb climax. And the action lacks the furious kinetic urgency the Bourne movies brought to the secret agent genre.
If it wasn't for Costner's pleasantly gruff CIA handler being tart and folksy in a moderately appealing way, there'd be not a single thing standing between Shadow Recruit and total unwatchability.
Nothing new re-boot of the Tom Clancy espionage wherein we learn the Russians are the bad guys...Again.
Great Chase Scenes
Audience Reviews for Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
There are many aspects of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, the fifth Jack Ryan film outing, that I admire. I liked the modern origins story, I liked the initial 'action light' espionage and I very much liked the way they handled the first time Jack Ryan kills. I liked Kenneth Branagh's bad guy and I enjoyed Kevin Costner's mentor role, although his screen time is too brief. I thought the direction and editing were also very good, who would have thought ten years ago that Branagh would be the go to man for action? Chris Pine was okay, he wouldn't have been my first choice and I was more convinced of his Captain Kirk imitation in this than I was in Star Trek but he wasn't terrible. What I didn't like so much was the inclusion of Keira Knightley aka Mrs Ryan. Her inclusion in the story served very little purpose in my mind and for such a big character as Jack Ryan is, it undermined his legend just that little bit. The previous three main Ryan films (not including The Hunt for Red October) shows Ryan as a spy to be reckoned with, here he is nothing special at all and comes across as a mere Bond/Bourne wannabe, which the character is not. The last half of the film gets a bit silly for my liking as the senseless action takes over and the sudden super spy qualities of Jack Ryan suddenly appear out of nowhere without any convincing explanation. It was all going so well too!
http://cinephilecrocodile.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/jack-ryan-shadow-recruit-dir-kenneth.html
Super Reviewer
Here's the latest entry in the Jack Ryan franchise, as a complete reboot. Ryan(Chris Pratt) tries to stop a financial terrorist. Although the movie is decent, it's the same as most spy/espionage movies, and doesn't really bring anything new to the table. The cast is good, although Keira Knightley is completely wasted. Her role could have been played by anyone. Pratt does good, and I'd like to see what else he can do with the character. As a jumping off point for a new franchise, it's OK. But if they make a sequel that doesn't improve a lot, this franchise won't have any legs, and will have to wait to be eventually rebooted. Worth a rental or bootleg, but I wouldn't buy it. Not something I'll be clamoring to watch again anytime soon.
MoreSuper Reviewer
Technically strong and stylish with a good performance from Costner, although the plot is poorly developed and the detective work is improbable and almost entirely based on lucky guesses. Because of this, I really felt cheated out of half the suspense and it did nothing to give the impression that Jack Ryan was a particularly talented analyst. The film is fun, near-mindless action, but really is not worthy of the Jack Ryan franchise.
MoreSuper Reviewer
Maybe the most generic thriller I've ever seen. Well-done, but blander than Chris Pine's face.
MoreSuper Reviewer
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Quotes
- Viktor Cherevin:
- You Americans like to think yourself direct but maybe your just plain rude.
- William Harper:
- Could you wipe that" Boy Scout at his first field trip" grin off your face for a second?
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