Country: USA / Russia
Movie Review: Kenneth Branagh’s “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” is an action film co-written by experienced writer/director David Koepp (“Ghost Town”, “Premium Rush”) and debutant Adam Cozad, based on the character created by Tom Clancy and featured in other films such as “The Hunt for Red October” and “Patriot Games”. This new adventure stars Chris Pine as secret agent Ryan, the always-charming Keira Knightley as his supportive girlfriend, Kevin Costner as a high-ranking CIA agent, and Branagh as the Russian villain Cheverin. A Russian conspiracy against US will bring agent Jack Ryan back in action, after recovering from a terrible helicopter accident in Afghanistan. His ability to decipher complex patterns and whereabouts will take him to a dangerous trip to Moscow where, against all the CIA rules, his beloved Cathy will join him in another impossible mission. I expected much more from this story set up in automatic mode by Branagh, where we can easily guess every outcome. The direction stepped widely in common ground, obeying to the traditional action standards of Hollywood and never bringing enough thrill or surprise to the already stereotyped story. The widely known car chasings occupied great part of the final action scenes, turning them into monotonous repetitions of thousand other similar scenes already seen before. In the dance of contemporary secret agents, which includes Jack Reacher and Jason Bourne, I would say that Jack Ryan is the less competent.
