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Dom Robinson reviews
Paramount
- Cert:
- Cat.no: PHE 8257
- Running time: 119 minutes
- Year: 2002
- Pressing: 2003
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 17 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English, Czech
- Subtitles: 12 languages available
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Trailer, Featurettes, Audio Commentaries
Director:
- Phil Alden Robinson
(Field of Dreams, Sneakers, The Sum of All Fears, The Woo Woo Kid, TV: Band of Brothers)
Producer:
- Mace Neufield
Screenplay:
- Paul Attanasio and Daniel Pyne (based on the novel by Tom Clancy)
Music:
- Jerry Goldsmith
Cast:
- Jack Ryan: Ben Affleck
DCI William Cabot: Morgan Freeman
President Fowler: James Cromwell
Admiral Pollack: Ken Jenkins
John Clark: Liev Schreiber
National Security Advisor Revell: Bruce McGill
Defense Secretary Becker: Philip Baker Hall
President Zorkin: Richard Marner
Dr Cathy Muller: Bridget Moynahan
President Nemerov: Ciaran Hinds
Thanks to a fight in 1973 where Egypt and Syria foughtagainst Israel,the outnumbered side sent out one plane containing their single nuclear bomb.It didn’t arrive at its target, but 29 years later someone was around to digit up. As luck would have it, it’s about to fall into the wrong hands.
Just after a nuclear arms inspection, during which Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck)deduces that three of the technicians aren’t where they’re supposed to be,all our American heroes get the call that Russia are up to no good once again,dropping bombs on Chechnya and spreading chemical nerve agents around, presumablyhaving learned how to do this from Saddam Hussein. Was it really them or wasit this splinter group with their new toy? Not difficult to work out, is it?
CIA analyst Jack Ryan has to go out into the field with one of their men who’smore into this kind of action, John Clark (Liev Schreiber), but thingstend to take far too long to get to this point with old-fashioned talk aboutwhat baddies the Russians are and that they can’t be trusted, so much so thatit starts to get pretty boring.
Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of films in which I’ll enjoy talkiescenes before the action comes in – it’s just that you should make it relevantand not something that we can easily take as a given. It also gets a bittiresome how old-hand DCI William Cabot (Morgan Freeman) tries totease the newbie. We’ve been here too many times before and there’s also aniffy comment early on from Morgan Freeman about how he’s not as bothered aboutthe man who has 27,000 nuclear bombs under his control – i.e. America – justthe man who has one.
And this is the fake moustache
we found in Saddam’s bunker.
Now onto the casting of Jack Ryan. Apparently Harrison Ford didn’t want to doanother one, but they could’ve gone back to Alec Baldwin.Those in charge decided that even though the film is set in the present day,they should bring the main character into the plot as a new recruit only ayear out of college and with a girlfriend, Cathy Muller (Bridget Moynahan),no doubt to be shaped into his wifely Cathy Ryan character. Maybe I’ve missedsomething – and I certainly don’t read books – but it just doesn’t work as wellas it should.
Things do pick up in the second half when World War III looks imminent, butit’s too little too late. This is a movie you should watch if you must seethe continuing adventures of Jack Ryan, or perhaps how they began in a strangeparadox kind of way, but don’t make it your first choice in the video store.
The Ben Affleck issues aside, the rest of the cast are fine if generallypedestrian. James Cromwell only seems to play roles of authority sincehe looks about twenty years older than he actually is, I can’t take Ken Jenkinsseriously as presidential aide Admiral Pollack due to the fact that he alsoplays Dr Bob Kelso in the excellent US sitcom Scrubs – which was remadeby BBC2 as the execrable TLC – and Ciaran Hinds, looks smarmyenough to play Russian President Nemerov, taking over from the previous top man,Zorkin (Richard Marner, aka the fat old German colonel in Allo Allo).Hinds also has as leathery a face as Michael Portillo, making for slightlyuncomfortable viewing.
Last yeara game also based on this filmwas released, but having now seen this film it’s clear they only wanted thename because the two are in no way related, apart from that it has a similargame engine to other Tom Clancy computer outings.
If Anthony H Wilson can have a
table suspended from the ceiling, then so can I.
There’s no problems with the picture or sound. The film is presented in ananamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen ratio with no noticeable blemishes and looks cleanand clear throughout with some lovely shots of Russia near the start.
There’s Dolby Digital 5.1 sound in English and Czech, which is effective forthe nuclear explosions, but most other things are a little on the sombre side.
The extras aren’t plentiful but cover a few bases:
- A Cautionary Tale (30 mins):Split into two halves and presented in anamorphic 16:9 widescreen, withanamorphic 2.35:1 film clips, as all the cast and main crew waffle on abouthow splendid the script was and how it could turn into a great film. Must’vebeen a different film than the one on this disc.
- Visual Effects (28 mins):or “How Things Were Blown Up”. I won’t give details about what was turned intomincemeat as that would be to spoil such scenes.
- Trailer (2 mins):In 16:9 letterbox.
- Audio commentaries:Two of them. One from director Phil Alden Robinson and cinematographerJohn Lindley, the other from the director plus novelist Tom Clancy.Why not just get all three together in the same room?
The main menu is animated and scored, there’s not enough chapters with just17 and subtitles come in 12 languages:English (and hard of hearing), Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch,Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish and Turkish.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.