Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

I was a big Tom Clancy fan until he wrote that awful, hate filled, bag of shit, Teeth of the Tiger, which I loathed so much I actually put it in the recycling bin rather than let anyone else read it. The previous Jack Ryan films were a bit of a mixed bag but were ok, not great but ok. So now we have a reboot, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. The title reminds me of one of those teen spy films there was a spate of a few years back: Stormbreaker, Agent Cody Banks, you get the idea.

We start off with Ryan's back story, which is accurate and told pretty well which then shifts into the main storyline which seems to be based loosely on the book Debt of Honor, which I really enjoyed. So far, so good. But what could have been a decent espionage thriller turns into your basic heist movie when they totally ignore the interesting parts of the narrative and instead focus on breaking & entering, James Bond gadgets, car chases and shoot-outs. The rest is crammed into the last twenty minutes in such a complete mess of exposition that we have no idea what the fuck is going on. But that doesn't matter 'cause Ryan's now in hot pursuit on a fucking motorbike.

Instead of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy we get Die Hard with a history degree. Jack Ryan was a desk jockey not Jason fucking Bourne! I'm really fucking annoyed right now.

Kenneth Branagh directed this? Really?

Original letterboxd review