Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

nthorvaldsson Predictable and a poor production all together. The characters behave improbable and the story could do with a reality check.. In what country are medical personnel allowed to wear long sleeves? Unhygienic!

sebastianolbrich35 Watching this movie leaves me absolutely stunned how one can mess this up. You have a line of charismatic and first-class Hollywood actors and, given Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, a successful franchise which provides a lot of story and background. In short - all the ingredients for a successful reboot are there. Given his appearance in latest Star Trek, Chris Pine also proved himself as suitable candidate to do so. Unfortunately the creators messed the whole thing up by overloading the story: Within the first minutes Jack Ryan watches the WTC fall, participates in war on terror in Afghanistan, get insures, learns how to walk again, meets his future wife and get recruited by the CIA. To much? - hey, wait for the main plot and the other characters. Kevin Costner (introduced as recruiter of Jack Ryan) reappears again as main contact and a sniper (!) on a mission in Russia. Keira Knightleys character is rather schizophrenic as she turns from jealous girlfriend into an undercover agent and then into the understanding spouse. The main villain's (a Russian oligarch - thank for trying, Kenneth) motivation is the one of a dying true patriot wanting to leave a legacy to his family. That does not stop him from getting distracted by preferably married women and wasteful dinners. Anyway, the legacy part becomes particular disturbing as one learns that his only son lives the life of a sleeper on US soil since he was nine and is now destined to execute a suicide mission on his father's behalf. Next, I sense creative disagreement whether his is supposed to be a spy movie, a character study or an action movie. Maybe one should have briefed the director and cutter on that. In its current state it is unclear which scenes actually contribute to the plot. The relevance of the action sequences are trapped somewhere between 24 and Transformers. A pity...

Leofwine_draca JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT is the latest 'reboot' of a film franchise, in this case the Jack Ryan films of the 1990s and early 2000s featuring Harrison Ford and then Ben Affleck. This prequel instalment sees a youthful Ryan on his first case, tackling some financial terrorists in Russia.It's not a bad film per se, and as a time waster it's likable enough, with a good techno-plot and some thrills along the way. There's a stand-out fight scene early on in the proceedings which is by far the highlight of the whole thing and brings to mind some of the BOURNE greatness. Elsewhere, though, the plot feels tired and contrived and certain ingredients are poorly judged.Take Kenneth Branagh, for instance. His direction here doesn't really work too well for the thriller genre as he has little grasp of the kind of pulses that make audiences react. His Russian villain is as clichéd as they come, but there's a worse actor to come: Keira Knightley. Knightley is condemned to the usual 'wife' type role, but unlike THE IMITATION GAME, where she was very good and full of warmth, she's shrill and unbelievable here. That godawful American accent doesn't help, either.As in the STAR TREK movies, Chris Pine isn't bad at acting, but he has little of the natural warmth or charisma that makes an acting great. The opening ten minutes of this film are poorly conceived and all over the place and should have been excised entirely, and the stuff at the climax feels overly familiar and a little underwhelming by modern thriller standards. That 12 certificate doesn't help much either: these Tom Clancy thrillers should be tough, gritty, realistic, and with a hard edge, and few films are up to that balancing act.

GusF Based on the "Jack Ryan" novels by Tom Clancy, this is a surprisingly enjoyable spy thriller. I have never read any of Clancy's novels nor have I ever seen any of the previous four "Jack Ryan" films so I judged this film purely on its own merits. The script by Adam Cozad and David Koepp is simple and not free of cliché - quite the opposite, in fact - but it is still a fun film. Much of the credit for that has to go to the excellent direction of Kenneth Branagh, my favourite living director. Frankly, I doubt that I would have watched the film had it been directed by someone else as such films are generally not to my taste. That said, it is fast paced and the action scenes are quite exciting. His trademark long takes are in evidence on several occasions during the film. It is basically a triumph of style over substance which does not tax the brain too much. However, I have to say that I found the inclusion of a planned terrorist attack on Manhattan to be of very questionable taste.The film stars Chris Pine as the title character and he is very engaging in the role. His performance as Captain Kirk is one of the few things that I genuinely like about the very bad "Star Trek" reboots so I was not surprised that I liked him here. Jack is a likable character and Pine's brand of charisma suited him well. One thing that did surprise him though was Ryan was affected by having to kill someone for the first time, which is about as deep as the film gets. Keira Knightley's chemistry with Pine isn't bad but she landed with the most clichéd role of all: the damsel in distress. She isn't much of an actress anyway. As he has being doing for over 25 years now, Kevin Costner steadfastly refuses to speak in anything other than a monotone in the film. I find his performances to be the cinematic equivalent of dead air.The best actor in the film - and alive, as far as I am concerned - is its director Kenneth Branagh as the villainous Viktor Cherevin, a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan War who is dying of cirrhosis. His plot to collapse the US economy so that Mother Russia can rise again indicates that Samuel Johnson was correct when he said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Branagh's Russian accent is excellent and his quietly intense performance as Cherevin makes the character more interesting and compelling than it would have been otherwise. His great eye for casting was most in evidence on this occasion when it came to himself. The film also features nice performances in small roles from Colm Feore (whom Branagh previously cast in "Thor"), Nonzo Anozie (whom he later cast in "Cinderella" (2015)) and David Paymer.Overall, this is a rather fun film that it is best not to take in any way seriously. I realise that there was quite a bit of damning with faint praise in this review but I did honestly enjoy it on the admittedly rather low level that it was aiming for.