Movie Review - Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Starring: Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh, Lenn Kudrjawizki, Alec Utgoff, Peter Anderson, Elena Velikanova, Nonso Anozie, and more.

Directed by: Kenneth Branagh Written by: Adam Cozad and David Koepp Based on Characters Created by: Tom Clancy Cinematography by: Hans Zambarloukos Music by: Patrick Doyle

Premise: After being hurt as a marine overseas, Jack Ryan finds a new goal for his life when recruited by a CIA operative who wants to use his high skills in economics to look for terrorist funds in banking institutions. So when he unearths the possibility of an economic attack on the US, Jack goes to Russia to do an audit. That's when he suddenly finds himself becoming a CIA operative, rather than a CIA administrative employee, because now people are trying to kill him. (Rated PG-13)

Review:

1) Acting - Thumbs Up: Chris Pine does a good job as the young, and eager recruit, Jack Ryan. Keira Knightley had good chemistry with Pine and gave the character of Cathy some nice little quirks to endear her to the audience. It was good to see Kevin Costner again. He did quite well as Jack's CIA boss. While not given much to work with, Kenneth Branagh did good work as well, especially during his scenes with Keira - some great chemistry, good and later bad, between him and the character of Cathy as well.

2) Special Effects - Total Thumbs Up: The special effects team gave us a few explosions and lots of cool looking computer screen activity. The final fight area must have given everyone a hard time - as they dealt with running water to the knees. Looked good though. And the final explosion of the film looked great.

3) Plot/Story - Neutral: For what the film set out to do, it was too short. It's only 105 minutes long. For some true character development and giving the audience a complicated plot, especially with spy thrillers, the requirement is at least 120 minutes, otherwise something won't get the attention it needs. Unfortunately for the "Shadow Recruit," the lack of proper time to tell the story ended up affecting several things.

Character development had many problems. There are four main figures in the film - Jack, Cathy, Thomas, and Viktor. Viktor's motivations made little sense, especially with what we find out late in the film. And aside from very small glimpses at the rest of them, there's not enough time to get to know any of them well. This unfortunately makes it harder to care about them. And if you don't get the audience to care about your characters, the battle is already lost.

Spy thrillers normally are complex puzzles filled with misdirects, surprises, and are full of tension. This definitely was not the case here. From very early on, we pretty much know the whole plan, just not the specific details, so no real puzzle there, just a time crunch for the hero. The couple of places they did try to surprise us were so minor as to make them nonexistent.

In some of the little things, though, the story was 'spot on'. Ryan's face during the end of his first battle. His lingering stare at the tub as he steps out of the bathroom in a later scene. The adorable way Jack and Cathy hook their pinkies in the car as they try to sell that they're a couple to the driver of the car. These lovely touches though only make the lack of fulfillment that much more sad. And the placement of the proposal flashback had a negative effect. Very odd.

4) Stunts - Total Thumbs Up: The film contains several fights and two chase scenes, and all were done well. The assassination attempt early on was brutal but awesome. It was the best of the lot.

5) Locations/Cinematography - Thumbs Up: Well, it was 'thumbs up' except for one area - and I was so shocked at the waste, it took some of the fun away.

When Jack reaches Russia and is being driven to his hotel, he passes several iconic Russian buildings. This is what one would figure to be a great opportunity to do some cinematography and show off these unusual sights, which work well at setting up the viewers to the new local and give the whole trip a foreign flavor. So I was shocked when the view outside Jack's window was unfocused and rushed! It's hard to envision what they could have had in mind at this point, unless they felt the audience is too familiar with these icons to be worth showing them off? Yet at other points in the film they made great use of buildings in the backgrounds to set mood or pin us to a location. So this made the blurred, unfocused scene make even less sense.

Conclusion: "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" is okay for a distraction, but fell far short of expectations. There wasn't really much 'spying' or 'thriller' about the entire affair. Tom Clancy caliber it definitely was not.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission)

Movie Review - RED 2

RED 2

Starring: Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Byung-hun Lee, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Neal McDonough, Brian Cox, David Thewlis, and more.

Directed by: Dean Parisot Written by: Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber Based on Characters Created by: Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner Cinematography by: Enrique Chediak Original Music by: Alan Silvestri

Premise: Retired CIA agent Frank Moses is enjoying 'normal' life, though his relationship with Sarah has come into some trouble. Her exposure to the thrills and dangers of being pursued have left her wanting more, but all Frank wants is for her to be safe - from everything. So when Marvin shows up with portents of doom, Frank isn't thrilled. But when Marvin's car explodes, and Frank confirms at the funeral that his odd friend really might not be faking it this time - he hits the start of an emotional rollercoaster. To make matters worse, agents show up outside the funeral to take Frank into custody to grill him over a project he's never heard of - Project Nightingale. (Rated PG-13)

Review:

1) Acting - Total Thumbs Up: If you enjoyed "RED" back in 2010, you'll be thrilled to know all those wonderful retired agents are back! Bruce Willis is just too much fun as the emotionally repressed, relationship bumbling, retired CIA agent Frank Moses. John Malkovich is a riot as Marvin. And yes, Marvin is still crazy, but now even dispenses love and relationship advice! Helen Mirren reprises her role as Victoria, more deadly and fun than ever. Catherine Zeta-Jones brought the heat up as Katja, Frank's one and only weakness. Mary-Louise Parker was hilarious as Sarah, craving the adrenaline and vying to prove she can be a better spy than the rival Russian hottie.

You'll have to wait a bit, but Brian Cox also returned as the ever romantic Ivan. He is well worth the wait!

Three other newcomers complete the headliners of this fun puzzle - Byung-hun Lee, who plays Han, a super cool assassin (at least until someone steals his plane), Anthony Hopkins as the somewhat unhinged Dr. Bailey (he's so good!), and Neal McDonough as the heartless Jack Horton. So there's tons of awesome talent for viewers to enjoy!

2) Special Effects - Total Thumbs Up: "RED 2" is full of great pyrotechnics. From the explosion of Marvin's car to the fantastic visuals used for a large sky detonation, everything looked wonderful. Throw in the gun battles, car chases, and especially the escape from the Fed holding facility, and your action quota will reach maximum.

3) Plot/Story - Thumbs Up: The comedy for "RED 2", much like in "RED," is very low key. It's much like reading the great works of Terry Pratchett - serious topics presented with just a bit of ridicule to make them that much more poignant. The characters are all contradictions of themselves, amazing in their element, but almost clueless when dealing with the mundane. Frank Moses is the focal point of most of the odd duality - on the one hand he's a retired yet still incredibly competent superspy, on the other he's a poor fool who can't even tell his overprotectiveness is driving away the very woman/companion he's craved his whole life for.

There are lots of great twists and turns as Frank, Sarah, Marvin and their friends try to unravel the mystery of Project Nightingale. Sarah's jealousy of Katja and how far she's willing to go to try to prove she's better were hilarious just from her undaunted drive to succeed.

Loved the way they tied "RED 2" back to "RED" with little mentions or tidbits that while not hurting the film if you didn't catch them, added a lot for those who did. We caught several of them after the fact, as we had so much fun with this one, we went and watched the original again - and then loved them both that much more.

The only real weak point in the plot was the fact something about Bailey was not mentioned or made clearer earlier (though I could have conceivably stepped out when they mentioned it, so it could be that I just missed it). But on the same vein, hours after seeing the film - I realized the bit about Bailey's pipe and where he finally found it actually singled out a profound and chilling statement of what he was feeling and really doing at that particular time thirty two years before. (And no, I can't tell you what it was! You'll have to see the film and figure it out for yourselves...)  

A couple of recurring jokes also peppered the film. I loved the one about the airplane. The one with "I didn't see that coming" has been used in other films before, so didn't work quite as well, in my opinion, though it was still fun.

4) Stunts - Total Thumbs Up: Spies, governments, and exposed secrets means we get a ton of action and a ton of stunts as well. Two beautifully filmed and choreographed car sequences tied right back to the original film in their orchestration as well as look and feel. Scene after great scene of gun play and hand to hand combat. Han's introduction to the story was marvelous - and all the scenes with hand to hand combat with Byung-hun Lee were just fantastic.  

The long chase scene through Paris was a great deal of fun.

5) Locations/Cinematography - Total Thumbs Up: While the first "RED" film took us to all sorts of locals in the US, "RED 2" is international. (I did miss seeing the whole postcard motif from the first film, but the red slashes worked pretty well too.) Great shots of places like London, Paris, Moscow. The long chase scene I mentioned before took great advantage of the locale with great shots of the area.

6) Costuming/Makeup - Total Thumbs Up: Great work by the makeup department, especially as the story goes along and some of the characters get into scuffles without much time to recover.

Conclusion: If you liked/loved "RED" you will like/love "RED2"! All the great, quirky characters are back and getting into even more trouble. The film is full of action, quirky humor, and great stunts.

Rating: 4 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission)

Movie Review - The Bourne Legacy

The Bourne Legacy

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weiz, Edward Norton, Zeljko Ivanek, Stacy Keach, Scott, Glenn, Rachel Black, and more.

Directed by: Tony Gilroy Story by: Tony Gilroy Screenplay by: Tony Gilroy and Dan Gilroy Inspired by: Robert Ludlum's Bourne Series Cinematography by: Robert Elswit Original Music by: James Newton Howard

Premise: As several government agencies try to cut off all possible connections with several other agencies due to exposure of their underhanded dealings by Jason Bourne, Aaron Cross finds himself being targeted for termination along with all the other agents who've undergone special training and DNA modification. Escaping with the use of the very skills they want to kill him for having, he needs to find help as the drugs keeping him who he is today slowly work out of his system. (Rated PG-13)

Review:

1) Acting - Total Thumbs Up: I first became aware of Jeremy Renner in the short lived series "The Unusuals", so I was quite eager to see what he would make of Aaron Cross. He did not disappoint. Rachel Weiz was a great foil for Mr. Renner's character as Dr. Marta Shearing. Her reactions were believable and her shock at events and trying to deal with them very vivid when creating a contrast against Aaron Cross's calm demeanor to such life changing events. With Edward Norton, and his awesome portrayal of the unscrupulous Eric Byer, a great dynamic, three dimensional story arises.

2) Plot/Story - Thumbs Up: Since this film is a side story born of the Bourne Series, concurrent events precipitating the cause for the troubles of Aaron Cross and Marta Shearing get shown in glimpses throughout different parts of the film. If you've watched the series, you'll feel an immediate connection as these scenes are shown. For those who've not watched any of the previous Bourne films, it might be a little difficult since some of the context is lost, but shouldn't impact the enjoyment of the film overall.

While there were no real big surprises in the plot, there were a lot of minor bits that were. Dr. Shearing's realistic reactions to the stressful and unusual situations she finds herself in covered several of these surprising bits. Also the real reason Aaron Cross loves the program so much, and what he will lose if he can't get more the medications that are part of the special agents's regimen. Plus a few others.

And with the addition of seeing behind the scenes through Mr. Norton's character, the film had more depth and a greater dynamic, that complimented the film overall.


3) Stunts - Total Thumbs Up: Since Jeremy Renner proves quite capable of pulling off the physical part of his role, the use of the shaky cam, which has increased in usage over each of the Bourne films, was kept mostly to a minimum. I was very happy about this, as too much shaky cam usage tends to dilute the action scenes, plus it also make it difficult for some people to watch. (On the last Bourne film, "The Bourne Ultimatum", I probably watched a whole ten to fifteen minutes of content out of the two hours because it made me ill to look at it.)

The film is full of great chases - some with vehicles and some without. My favorite was the long chase in Manila. There was a very cool, multi-dimensional aspect to the foot chase, which was inspired. Really well done.

4) Locations/Cinematography - Total Thumbs Up: Several long camera sweeps proved incredible in setting the tone and utter bleakness of a couple of locations. While a lot of the camera work pulled back on the training area for Cross, this was turned the other way during their stay in Manila. There the camera work was very close, weaving with the characters through the narrow streets, only at times pulling back and showing the vast amount of people in the very active city for the second, concurrent chase occurring over the rooftops. Very nice!

Conclusion: A well executed film with loads, and loads of action. Make sure your bladder is empty because in the film's last twenty minutes you will not want or be able to leave your seat.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission)