Review: ‘Jack Ryan’ is but a shadow of previous Clancy adaptations

Posted on January 24, 2014

Twelve years after Ben Affleck starred as Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan in “Sum of All Fears,” we have a new reboot, this time with Chris Pine (“Star Trek”) sliding into the role and Kenneth Branagh (“Thor”) at the helm. The first Jack Ryan film not to be based on one of Clancy’s novels, this new film is a suitable spy thriller that provides enough enjoyment for its two-hour run, but if you stop and think about things too long, it begins to fall apart.

“Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” is a fun action thriller with good action, good acting and interesting characters, and works well enough as long as you keep your brain turned to a low simmer, which is fine for an early-year release, but it is not what we’ve come to expect from films based on the works of Tom Clancy.

The film is rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and intense action, and brief strong language.

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