Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (M)
Starring: Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner
WILL the real Jack Ryan please stand up?
No no, Chris Pine, I’m looking at you – sit down.
To be fair, the shocking miscasting of Chris Pine as mature action man Jack Ryan isn’t the most confronting mistake in this film.
It’s just such a wildly improbable ride that it gives new meaning to suspension of disbelief.
So here’s this CIA analyst Ryan character, having just learned to walk again after suffering a broken back in a shot-down helicopter, going toe to toe with a man-mountain in a Russian bathroom – and winning.
He’s an international super-spy who can’t hide a movie ticket stub from his wife. You’d never make it as a movie reviewer, Jack.
It’s a paint-by-the-numbers, routine action thriller that starts OK, but goes off the reservation about 20 minutes in and never recovers.
Russia is trying to engineer an American economic collapse – but that’s not very exciting, so the script writers engineer a Wall Street bombing to go with it.
This gives Jack a chance to strut his stuff – and, of course, his badly broke back.
Pine, a fine actor in his own right and a brilliant Captain Kirk, has nothing like the gravitas to pull this off.
Keira Knightley wanders around aimlessly making Jack look big and strong, and Kevin Costner steadies the side as his handler and mentor.
And for Jack Ryan?
Bringing back the thin Alec Baldwin is obviously a bridge too far but, short of Bruce Willis growing a full head of hair that’s not grey, we have little choice.
– Jason Beck
