Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, based on book by Tom Clancy - 7 out of 10

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, based on book by Tom Clancy
7 out of 10


For fans of the genre, this movie would be entertaining...perhaps supremely so.

Nonetheless, those who are not so enthusiastic when spies sneak incredibly in the most secure buildings, manage to oppose armies of supposedly well trained guards and extract the loved one when it is humanly impossible, may just find this absurd and often ludicrous.
The New York Times' scribe thought this 'competently made, moderately diverting variation on a genre standard'

That may be, probably is the best summary of the whole show.
For my assessment that this is actually not working must be amended on a few levels.

I don't like the spy thriller in particular and missed the last few James Bond releases, which should be the creme de la creme.
Being subjective and set against the very nature of the film would affect the judgement call.

Nevertheless, it seems rather preposterous in places.
Take this sequence:

Jack Ryan is about to audit t accounts of a Russian oligarch and he meets him at his Moscow highly protected, impenetrable in fact headquarters.
The hero learns that the audit is no longer required and must return empty handed...he was supposed to look into the figures, spy around and find when the villain would start selling his shares, which would follow a terrorist attack on America and thus would cause a financial meltdown on top of the political, social and whatever else we can add crisis.

Jack Ryan is so divine and supernatural that he then says, I will buy you dinner tonight.
The busy, imports mogul has nothing to do, his schedule is empty and so he says ...

No! I'm buying!

Can you believe that?
I don't!

Why would he spend time with a lowly accountant.
Being so powerful that he is about to crush the free world, he has nothing else to do but meet someone like Michael Palin in the sketch with the accountant that wants to be a ...lion tamer?

And then of course, the super agent comes back in the fortress and takes all he wants...