As I wrote the other day after watching all of the old Jack Ryan movies, I was pretty excited to watch this series, and so it didn’t take me long to binge all eight episodes. Overall I quite enjoyed it, even though it’s certainly not without flaws. I do quite like that most of the show concerns itself with the “other” side of the equation — meaning, telling the story of the terrorists in a very fleshed out away, instead of the broad strokes we usually get in movies. And Krasinski as Ryan? The fact that we spend so much time with him (as opposed to 1 movie for all of the other characters, and 2 for Ford) does give him a certain advantage, and I think he plays him appropriately — it can be said that Ryan is a bland character, but his major characteristic is that he refuses to compromise on his principles, and we see that a lot here. I’m glad they went to TV to tell Jack Ryan stories, and hope we get another season. But man, the title opening is the blandest thing ever.
I’ve always been a pretty big fan of the Jack Ryan movies — I like action thrillers in general, and military ones as well — and so I’ve been pretty hyped for the upcoming Jack Ryan TV series (starting on Prime Video next week). In preparation for that, just like I did for the Mission: Impossible movies ahead of watching the latest one, I decided to re-watch all of the movies this past week, which I did over 3 nights. Unlike M:I, where there’s one stinker, I like all of the Ryan films, although I can easily say that Harrison Ford’s Ryan is my favorite portrayal, but that The Hunt for Red October is my favorite film — if I were to put the films in order of faves, I’d say it goes The Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games, The Sum of all Fears, and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Red October is just such a great thriller, and it was still exciting to see all of the intense sub maneuvering towards the end — and you gotta love that Connery Russian accent. Of the two Ford films, I prefer the second one (with the drug cartels), mostly because I like a bit less that things are so personal in the first film (Sean Bean targeting his family specifically) — I prefer when the stakes are on a global scale. I really wish Ford had made more of these, and have no idea why they stopped after two — I’m assuming they were fairly successful at the box office. Affleck’s Sum of all Fears is fine, and I love that it actually goes through the detonation of a nuclear device, with the aftermath. I even like the more recent Shadow Recruit with Chris Pine, and wouldn’t have minded seeing it become a franchise, but I guess it didn’t do well enough — and what I do like the least about it is that it doesn’t involve high-ranking government officials and the President of the United States, which is usually a big part of all these movies. So I guess that in this day and age of prestige TV, it does make sense to re-explore the character in serial form, and I do quite like John Krasinski, so I’m pretty excited to watch the new series when it debuts on Friday.
First of all, why the fuck did they have to put Jack Ryan in the title of the movie? James Bond: Skyfall would be just as dumb. But I do like seeing spy/international intrigue movies – which we don’t get much of – and so I was actually looking forward to watching this. I quite like the other Ryan movies, and although I don’t think this is better than the Ford ones or Red October, it’s probably better than the Affleck one (I honestly don’t remember much about that one, which is probably a sign I didn’t like it that much). There was some exciting stuff to watch here, and the cast is pretty good, except for Keira Knightley, whose American accent just always felt a bit off, and so it was distracting.
