{"id":29917,"date":"2014-11-10T10:30:45","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T15:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=29917"},"modified":"2018-12-14T10:38:40","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T15:38:40","slug":"jack-ryan-shadow-recruit-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/10\/jack-ryan-shadow-recruit-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The worst crime that \u201cShadow Recruit\u201d is guilty of is that it\u2019s mediocre. At no point was I worried for the characters because, I just didn\u2019t care. We know Ryan fights another day, so why fear for his life? The studios can\u2019t quite seem to decide if they want to turn Jack Ryan in to Jason Bourne, or just a geek chic techie, so in \u201cShadow Recruit\u201d he\u2019s both. One minute he\u2019s zooming through New York in a motorcycle trying to chase down a fake police car intent on blowing up Wall Street, and the next he can barely finish a covert operation without the help of Kevin Costner\u2019s guardian Thomas watching and re-assuring him from afar. At this point, it\u2019s about time to really give up on the Jack Ryan character.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Through no fault of Chris Pine\u2019s, Ryan just comes off kind of like a geeky schmuck thrust in to an impossible situation he can sometimes handle, and sometimes can\u2019t. He narrowly dodges assassination by wrestling with and drowning a large African man, and when he has to meet with Costner\u2019s character, he can barely remember protocol for his mission. I wish the writers would decide on whether they want to turn Ryan in to an average Joe superhero, or an ass kicking secret agent. In a better movie with much better writers and a clearer idea of the tone, Chris Pine would have been the perfect man to help relaunch the Jack Ryan Series. He has the square jawed military aesthetic that make Ryan look like the great underdog hero, but Pine\u2019s depiction of the character pulled in every direction.<\/p>\n

And as good an actor as Pine is, he just lacks the stoicism and urgency of Harrison Ford. Despite the politically relevant plot involving post 9\/11 paranoia, and a terrorism plot involving the recession of 2008, \u201cShadow Recruit\u201d lacks real tension, and suspense, and never seems anxious to keep our characters on the verge of death. Ryan is an interesting hero when the script allows it, he just never seems to be in enough of a harrowing situation to keep us rooting for him. And the hopelessly convoluted plot of Russians to plan a recession, and a terrorist bombing initiating a new great depression of America is much too confusing and pointless to really warrant any interesting twists or turns. There\u2019s also a real lack of a menacing villain, as even the bad guys have some tragic bent to them. No matter how thick his Russian accent is, Kenneth Branagh\u2019s villainous banker is dull, and he looks bored through most of his screen time.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, much of the espionage and reconnaissance is bogged down by a painfully obnoxious sub-plot involving Ryan\u2019s romance with his girlfriend Cathy. Granted, Keira Knightley is a charming actress, but the film\u2019s over reliance on their passion, romance, and tension mars what should have been a tense action thriller. It also doesn\u2019t help that the writers crib from \u201cTrue Lies\u201d with Cathy\u2019s investigation of Jack\u2019s secret profession, resulting in her getting in on a top secret operation. That said, in moments, \u201cShadow Recruit\u201d is a fun film with Pine really lending a new angle to the Jack Ryan hero. Kevin Costner for all of his limited screen time is a great side character that I\u2019d love to see a spin off from, and Branagh\u2019s direction is dynamic and sleek. All things considered, Pine deserves another shot at a stronger more daring Jack Ryan film, as \u201cShadow Recruit\u201d is only an average affair for Clancy fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The worst crime that \u201cShadow Recruit\u201d is guilty of is that it\u2019s mediocre. At no point was I worried for the characters because, I just didn\u2019t care. We know Ryan fights another day, so why fear for his life? The studios can\u2019t quite seem to decide if they want to turn Jack Ryan in to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58,64,302,330,631,703,922,975,1087,1107],"class_list":["post-29917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-adaptation","tag-drama","tag-espionage","tag-martial-arts","tag-mystery","tag-sequel","tag-spy","tag-thriller","tag-tom-clancy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29919,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29917\/revisions\/29919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}