The Sum Of All Fears - Special Edition

Harrison ford hands the role over to the much, much younger Ben Affleck, in this prequel/re-think to the Jack Ryan movies. It's similar to the re-think they did to the Bond series. The big suprise is Ben Affleck is good in the role. This is the start of Ryans role in the CIA. As Americas cold war fears are rekindled after the president of Russia dies and is sucseeded by a much more aggresive president. But tension really builds between the two super powers when the CIA suspect renaged Russian scientists are developing more nuclear weapons. Mobilised into action Ryan and CIA director (Morgan Freeman) follow the trail to the conclusion that it's actually neo nazi Terrorist's that are setting the two sides up for war by the ultimate act of terror- detonating a nuclear bomb in the middle of a football game.
The film might be a little far fetched, but in these turbulant times anything is possible, if you told somebody ten years ago that terrorist's would bring down the world trade center, they would accuse you of being paranoid or mad!
What makes this the best of the Jack Ryan movies is, after the detonation of the Bomb, there is a overwhelming sense of urgancy, as Russia and America go tit-for-tat and things quickly spiral out of control. It's up to Ryan to get the two sides to hold fire and bring the propper culprits to justice.
This film is explosive entertainment, and anybody who likes the other Jack Ryan film, The Bourne Trilogy, the recent The Kingdome and even The Peacemaker will no doubt enjoy these high tech thrills.
Top quality stuff!

The cold war is long gone but some still want America and Russia to wage war. American military Generals are hell bent on pushing the button, Russia cannot lose face or seem weak, with those hidden in the middle playing on this. A great cast of actors, great storyline and you must simply see it.

Only given 1 star because i can't give any lower! Awful film with a great actor like Morgan Freeman! Avoid at all costs!

After a gapin the late 1990s the Jack Ryan franchise underwent the reboot attempt with Ben Affleck taking over from Harrison Ford and going back to a younger version of the character.

It works to a certain degree. The Sum of All Fears is definitely the most convoluted and densely plotted of the films (Clear and Present Danger was as well, but still managed to have a clearer actual focus) involving an apparent attempt by someone to force the USA and Russia into an open conflict.

Grittier than some of the previous films thanks to it's rather frightening depiction of an American city being devasted by a small nuclear detonation (the film was actually made before the events of 2001 and was delayed as a result because of some of the content) it's as smart and involving as it's predecessors but in fairness, Affleck is no Harrison Ford and while he does well, you find yourself thinking it was a shame Ford was too old to be involved by the time they made it.

Extras are relatively un-noteworthy save for the first major appearance of Tom Clancy himself among the contributers to one of the two film commentaries. In his commentary with director Phil Alden Robinson it's actually quite amusing to listen to him point out some of the 'problems' in the film and the director try and respond to them!

For the price just now - a good, smart thriller.

When i saw the trailers for this film, i was expecting your Typical "End of the world" Disaster movie combined with
your Typical "Modern Warfare" type film.
Altogether a good combination.

It wasnt anything at all like that.

It was more of a psychological drama typical of the whole "East Vs West" dramas that made the 80's and early 90's so great.

It does have a good storyline however, and though somewhat predictable, Certainly does a good job of switching between the Various characters in the film
without getting the audience confused.

My biggest complaint was the lack of Action.
Im being deadly serious when i say the films entire array
of action sequences are shown in the cinematic trailers used to advertise it.
Still.. if its on, and you got nothing else to do, you could do a lot worse than watch this film. 3 stars for quality of production.