When it comes to naming the best onscreen iteration of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Chris Pine is surely at the bottom of the pile. No offense to the actor, but he was saddled with a subdued script in a very dull film, so it wasn’t much of a shock that Shadow Recruit didn’t end up spawning a franchise.
John Krasinski clearly has his fans after Amazon’s popular series was renewed for a third season, but for most folks it’s always going to be a straight shootout between The Hunt for Red October‘s Alec Baldwin or Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger‘s Harrison Ford, which leaves Ben Affleck and The Sum of All Fears squarely in the middle.
Once Ford decided that his days as Ryan were over, the decision was made to reboot the series with a younger star in the lead role, picking up with the CIA analyst in the formative stages of his career. Affleck was handed a $10 million salary for his troubles, and he repaid the studio by steering the film to $193 million at the box office on a $68 million budget.
Morgan Freeman is on hand to lend his dignified gravitas to the proceedings, and it’s an all-round solid blast of Hollywood entertainment. Netflix subscribers clearly agree, with The Sum of All Fears having spent the entire week residing in the most-watched list, where it can currently be found in eleventh position.
