Sum Of All Fears

Jack Ryan returns for his fourth outing on film in The Sum Of All Fears, however since this is one of the loosest franchises in the history of cinema it hardly seems worth the effort to establish how this links in with the other films. Our newly youthful CIA analyst discovers that terrorists have stolen a nuclear weapon to try and initiate war between the USA and Russia. As always Mr Ryan is the only man who truly knows what is going on and has to mediate between warmongering governments to stop World War III.

Whilst Morgan Freeman excels in a role that mimics James Earl Jones' in The Hunt For The Red October, Ben Affleck doesn't seem intellectual enough to analyse the contents of his own armpit, let alone complex Russian military information. This is compounded when the viewers first encounter with the younger, sleeker, more 18-25 audience friendly Ryan finds him having a frat-house style discussion about which Russian dignitaries are sleeping with each other.

What mistakes are made in the casting are saved somewhat by having non action director Phil Alden Robinson at the helm. Once he has stopped constructing flashy crane shots of characters and locations he gets into a good groove of tension building, before a shocking and expertly handled big event in the middle of the film. In the interests of not spoiling the plot of the film I will not explain what this is, but suffice to say it is an object lesson in showing how banal and adolescent Michael Bay's staging of the Pearl Harbour attack was.

The film's mature approach to international terrorism sets it apart in the sea of opportunist war movies that have recently been appearing. Affleck's presence, however, guarantees enough adrenaline soaked to aid his transformation into an action hero. If you avoided The Sum Of All Fears due to it's critical panning on release then you should try taking a look this time round: you'll be pleasantly surprised.

David Goody