The Sum of All Fears (2002)

It's not easy replacing Harrison Ford as a beloved screen hero, but Ben Affleck brings fresh vitality to The Sum of All Fears, reviving Paramount's Tom Clancy franchise in the role Ford made famous. As CIA agent Jack Ryan, Affleck is a rookie in the covert ranks, unraveling a plot that lures Russian and American superpowers into a nuclear standoff, while a neofascist faction turns most of Baltimore into an atomic wasteland and holds the world in the grip of a terrorist nightmare. Affleck combines sharp intelligence with a new-guy's perspective, while a senior agent (Morgan Freeman) passes the torch of back-channel authority. The result is one of the best Clancy films to date, ably helmed by Phil Alden Robinson (whose comic thriller Sneakers was sorely underrated) with a stellar supporting cast, and adapted with abundant humor, humanity, and thrills by Donnie Brasco screenwriter Paul Attanasio and cowriter Daniel Pyne. Even the typically reticent Clancy would approve. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

Not a bad thriller.

Action thriller set in 2002 in which a neo-Nazi terrorist group gets hold of a small Israeli nuclear bomb that went missing during the Arab-Israeli war of 1973 and uses it to try and trick America and Russia into nuclear war with each other, and the efforts of a CIA analyst played by Ben Affleck to prevent this nightmare scenario from happening. Not a bad thriller, with one particularly horrifying moment on which the whole film hinges, but it must be said I have seen films with `preventing World War Three' plots that had greater urgency (e.g. Crimson Tide starring Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman). Still, worth a look. July 13, 2008

GOOD ENTERTAINMENT BUT WITH A SOBERING TOPIC

I've had this DVD on the shelf for a few years but never watched it. And the book is one of Tom Clancy's I'd never read. Having the three other DVDs of Clancy's books I kinda knew what to expect. But the movie was a pleasant surprise in its realism of just what a small detonatioin could do. And the subject is still a valid one today, what one deranged group with one device could achieve.

I noticed Tom Clancy was the producer, so he must have had some input to this movie. I have trouble with Ben Afflect playing Jack Ryan, but then I have never liked any of the actors that have filled that role. Don't ask me who could do it, but none of these actors would have been my choice.

For this movie the special effects steal the show, and one of the problems with putting a Tom Clancy on the screen was pointed out not only by some reviews here, but in the special features on the disc: the books are sprawling epics too large to be reduced to the screen. I doubt any other books will ever be filmed, unless Mr. Clancy becomes less "James Michener" like and reduces the number of pages in his books.

Overall, the film was both more and less than expected. More enjoyable and less pandering to what a fallout attack would bring. All in all for an action adventure film it does the job.

Semper Fi. July 6, 2008

It ain't over yet

Even in this new era of Russian and American friendship
into which this film came, there are still atomic bombs on both sides.
Technically the handling of people in the bomb area in this film is very wrong : at the hospital and on the streets.
Everyone is taught that the ashes from the bomb are as deadly as the bomb itself. No one was doing decontaminations here.
The brinkmanship here was classic and the Jack Ryan as good as ever.
Tom Clancy is a very good spy/ suspense writer, he just doesn't seem to know that much about atomic bombs. April 23, 2008

Total disappointment.

Other reviews already written go into specifics about the film. So let me just add my two cents. The movie is awful. It is not anywhere in the same league as the other Tom Clancy novel films. It's boring, poorly paced, not true to the book, cliche, and all together lacking any depth or originality. I never felt on the edge of my seat or worried about any of the characters. The actors are excellent in other films (esp. Morgan Freeman) but in this film cardboard cut outs. Don't waste your time. March 24, 2008

Actors excellent! Script not so good.

I enjoyed the first hour or so of this film, but then it turned into a replay of War Games. The last 30-40 minutes jumped around and were so rushed that all that remained was the predictable outcome. January 19, 2008

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