Weekly Cinemeh

Hello, and welcome back to Weekly Cinemeh, this week we started out with a plan to watch Sean Connery movies but we ran into a bit of a snag and needed to change direction quickly. In this case we watched The Hunt For Red October, and then had to change gears from Sean Connery to Tom Clancy Movies. I am not a fan of Tom Clancy, not in the "I hate him" sort of way or anything (though I do disagree with his politics), I have just never read one of his books is all. I might change that tune though, because this was a mostly alright week with an interesting style of spy thriller I would like to dub Intelligence Thriller. They weren't as slow as a movie like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy but they also weren't as balls out as Mission Impossible. These movies (for the most part, as you will see) emphasized intelligence, and the importance of understanding the opposition instead of just saying "they are bad guys, lets stop them with guns and gadgets!" though there is some of that. Anyway, enough with the explanations, let's get to the list!

1: The Hunt For Red October
I want to get this out of the way because the main character of this movie appears in all of our movies this week. Jack Ryan is a character of pure masturbation. He is a writer/historian who works for the CIA as an analyst and is super competent in almost all fields he works in. Author insertion fantasy persona (or AIFaP) is the term I think. Regardless, its a nifty idea, an analyst is forced into fieldwork because they are the only person who thinks that the supposed villain might not be one. In this case its a Russian submarine commander who has taken an advanced sub on a direct route to the USA so he can defect. The problem is that he doesn't tell anyone in the US that he is doing that, so the US decides that a sub, on its way to it's coast loaded with nukes, might be a threat. Jack Ryan deduces that this captain, who is well known for being brilliant, wouldn't do that and tries to open up a line of communication with him. Its a movie that takes a while to get going, but is nice and tense when it does. It does a good job of making the world feel claustrophobic inside of the subs, which continues to build, especially when people start getting shot at. Alec Baldwin does a good job playing Jack Ryan, and is believable as a former marine turned writer. Sean Connery makes me fucking laugh in this movie a lot. Not because his acting was bad (it wasn't, the man is an excellent actor) but because listening to his "Russian" accent was amusing. Connery is notorious for not giving two shits about hiding or changing his Scottish accent and if he wasn't such a good actor it would have been his downfall long ago. But now we can all giggle as he speaks Russian as spoken by someone in Edinburgh. The movie was good, despite some little plot holes, and well worth a watch.

Eshi: So leaving aside the fact that writing a fictional story about you saving the world with how fucking clever you are is about the trashiest authorial failing that doesn't involve a government propagandist, Jack Ryan is a fun character. Its rare to see a protagonist who can make solving problems with diplomatic minutia engaging. Sean Connery is grand, Tim Curry is always a joy and Sam Neill manages to not be completely unsettling in every scene. Its tense, fun, and interesting; give it a watch.

2: The Sum Of All Fears
I was shocked by how much I enjoyed this movie. Its a movie about a bunch of (ugh.) Nazis who decide to play the US and Russia against each other a midst diplomatic tension. Jack Ryan is once again pulled into the fray when he knows more about the intentions of the other side than the people in charge and must find out what is really going on. I like Ben Affleck and Morgan Freeman, and they did some good work in this film. Their relationship as mentor and mentee is believable and fun to watch. Liev Schreiber was also good, playing Tom Clancy's other main character John Clark. I also liked the message that this movie appeared to have: there needs to be some amount of trust and honest communication between countries, or else we will all die in nuclear war.

Eshi: This was my favorite movie this week. Ben Affleck has just the right combination of smug douchebag and closet nerd to really sell Jack Ryan. The synergy between Ryan and Clark is beautiful to watch once it gets going and is a far more faithful example of effective intelligence work than movies are known for. Liev Schreiber is probably my favorite action-oriented actor, and SoAF uses him well, even if he takes a back seat. In its heart The Sum of All Fears is a love letter to diplomacy, and on that level alone it deserves an afternoon.

3: Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
 This movie departs from the other two by having a distinct enemy from the beginning instead of a red herring. This isn't bad, its just indicative of a huge change in tone from the last two movies and this one. While understanding motivations of your enemy and using intelligence to figure out enemy plots happens in all of these movies, it feels like less of a plot device and more a framing for action sequences. There is more focus on Jack Ryan's marine training and action rather than his analyst side, which takes away from the feel of the others. There is also a romance in this movie that is played way up, which wouldn't be a problem if this wasn't a movie about the CIA. No agent, regardless of need, would put a US civilian in this amount of danger. Also why the fuck is a non-field agent doing espionage. They clearly have the resources to have people on site (I counted 6 agents for the CIA just in the break in scene) who are going to be better trained for field work than this guy. I get that he needs to look at the data, but that doesn't mean he needs to be the one to get it. This movie tried to go to far in the action hero direction, which I think was a mistake. Its not awful, but its not good either.

Eshi: Ugh, I fucking hate Chris Pine as Jack Ryan. He's the wrong kind of charismatic, the wrong kind of action hero, and (his actual intelligence notwithstanding) he can't sell smart to save his life. Sly, yes. Smart, no.  Kevin Costner is a painful let down as the mentor, Morgan Freeman and James Earl Jones are acts to follow and frankly Kevy Cos lacks both the gravitas and the charisma. Also, Keira Knightly is weird, pretty much always. You can tell that this one wasn't actually written by Tom Clancy, it lacks depth, it lacks intrigue. Honestly, I'd skip this one.