Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
2014  PG-13  ACTION  1h 45min
CAST— Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh, Keira Knightley
MUSIC— Patrick Doyle  DIRECTOR— Kenneth Branagh  BASED ON— Characters created by Tom Clancy

     Best-selling author Tom Clancy’s franchise character Jack Ryan gets a reboot in this ever-confusing thriller. Ryan (Chris Pine) is an economics student who, after the events of 9/11, feels compelled to join the U.S. military. After a devastating injury he must endure exhausting physical therapy where he not only catches the eye of his lovely therapist (Keira Knightley) but is also noticed by the CIA. The Agency recruits Ryan to investigate cyber terrorists working Wall Street. Ten years later he’s in the thick of it, working at investment firms, covertly tagging suspicious account activity. When Russia sets in motion a plan to collapse the U.S. dollar (thereby crippling America’s economy, bringing about a second Great Depression), Ryan visits Moscow in an attempt to root out the corruption. There he graduates from being a CIA analyst to being a full-fledged operative when he is thrust into action against sinister Russian terrorists. A moderately entertaining spy caper, never becoming the slam bang action thriller one may be craving. Ultimately forgettable.
OUR RATING— **