Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Stars: Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Keira Knightley, Kenneth Branagh
Jack Ryan (Chris Pine), a character created by the prolific New York Times best-selling writer Tom Clancy (The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games), is a CIA analyst who stumbles on a Russian plot to destabilize America’s financial markets with a terrorist attack. A terrorist attack? As we all learned in 2008, it doesn’t take a foreign plot to bankrupt America; greedy Wall Street bankers and spineless politicians can do that without firing a single shot. However, in Clancy’s well-drawn world, the Russians are infinitely more interesting and dangerous than the Suits on the Street. So sit back and enjoy this taut action-thriller that harkens back to the time when the Russians were the only villains Americans were concerned about. It’ll almost make you nostalgic for the relatively bloodless era of the Cold War. –p.d. lee
