Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 1.5
Gifted economics major/rugged U.S. Marine Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) gets recruited by the CIA (embodied by Kevin Costner) to analyze dubious financial transactions between the United States and a shifty Russian tycoon (Branagh). Standard cloak-and-dagger material loaded with various shaky moments (fancy tech gadgets moving the plot forward, for example) and cornball spy dialogue ("You're not just an analyst now ... you're operational!") that seems like an expensive excuse for Branagh to work on his Russian accent - oh, and Keira Knightley is in there to be the clingy girlfriend/potential kidnapping victim. Costner is right about one thing: no one blows up Pennsylvania.
