Jack Ryan : Shadow Recruit Review

Jack Ryan...not Sparrow is back y'll! 

Jack Ryan : Shadow Recruit Review – The last time I ‘saw’ Jack Ryan was in the early 2000 played by Ben Affleck and his mentor Morgan Freeman. This time however the torch has been passed on to Chris ‘Captain Kirk’ Pine and Kevin ‘The Bodyguard’ Costner. Tagging along for the ride is Keira ‘Elizabeth Swan’ Knightly and Kenneth ‘Gilderoy Lockhart’ Branagh taking on double role as the Director as well. With such ‘strong’ cast, I was expecting a revival of Jack Ryan franchise buttttttt…..sad to say it fell a little short for my liking. Here’s why….

Will he make it? 

As we all know, Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) is no James Bond but he does his best to protect United State of America from any threat, domestic or foreign (usually the Russian…meh). He signs up for a mission in Afghanistan (another stereo type) and his crew on the chopper gets blown into pieces before they could land. Jack somehow survives the tragedy but with serious injuries to his back and falls for the girl, Kathy (Kiera Knightly) whom helps him to get back on his feet again. Watching him closely is CIA big shot, Harper (Kevin Costner) and secretly or should I say ‘shadow-ly’ hires Jack to monitor ‘data or some shite like that’ in order to make sure their ‘business partner’, Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh) does not ‘screw them up’. Jack notices some anomaly and makes a trip Russia for ‘auditing purposes’. Upon arrival, Jack’s life gets into danger so he tries to stay alive while bring down the ‘terrorist’. Will he make it? Can he save this beloved country? Will there be another sequel? Yawn…. 

Nice to meet you boy! 

Don’t get me wrong, I like looking at Chris Pine, I mean look at that body. I’m willing to get into trouble just so he would rescue me but his acting chops so far failed to capture my attention as much as his face or abs. I still remember him from Princess Diaries 2 and let’s leave it at that. I’m sorry Chris…you are good but just don’t tickle my fancy (Cewah….macam lah mamat tu minat kat aku kan? Kekeke) Kevin, Kevin, Kevin…the man who was ‘Robin Hood’ and I shall leave you with that imagine of him in his green tights because he too didn’t make any impression in this flick. Kiera…please go back to your English accent and stop messing about with American ones. Kenneth…sigh…dude…you should have let your memory remained lost (in reference to Harry Potter) instead of trying to direct this movie and having that God awful Russian accent.

Go back to being English Kenneth! 

After waiting more than 10 years for Jack Ryan to hit the big screen, I was let down by the storyline, the cast, everything lar…it was just missing something which I can’t pin point myself. There were some chasing, action scenes but it’s nothing you can’t find in some many other movies out there. Seemed like Jack needs to find his mojo if he were to gain my trust to ‘see him again’.

First preview from Churp Churp! 

P/s - Thank you Churp Churp for the first preview of 2014 with more to come I hope!