The Sum of All Fears

This is a Great movie, spellbinding and Stressful.

Far-fetched? Absolutely. Great story. Absolutely. Worth watching? Absolutely. Worth watching AGAIN? You guessed it: ABSOLUTELY. Loved this one. I don't understand why the hatred, but I thought this was a great movie. Yes, there were plot holes big enough to drive a truck through, but guess what? **IT'S A HOLLYWOOD-PRODUCED WORK OF FICTION!** Sit back and forget everything and watch the flippin' movie already. If you're looking for "true-to-life", let me suggest one of the many documentaries available on Netflix. Or perhaps you would enjoy the History channel. Maybe one of the "reality" shows...yeah, one of those where the average joe manages to find a soft spot in some multi-gazillionaire car collector/hobbyist's heart and gets presented with a fully-restored 1963 Cadillac because _"We share your pain in the loss of your father, so here's a nice shiny car worth about $350,000 because we're just really nice people"_. Oh, absolutely that's soooooooooooooooooooo much more true-to-life than this movie. Quit hating on the movie and stick to your fake reality TV, losers. This is a good movie, bottom line. Deal with it.

At a quick glance - and judging from the mediocre 70% overall rating on here - this movie was not well received. However, I found it very enjoyable, even though a bit dated. (Of course, at my age, I'm getting to where I _prefer_ the "dated" movies as all the current stuff is mostly just tripe and rehashed vomitous.) Maybe I'm getting jaded by watching so many movies in the Horror genre here of late, and something that is completely different seems to bring a breath of fresh air. There were, yes, a few scenes that were eye-rollable but for the most part, it was an enjoyable, suspenseful, cat-and-mouse political thriller. I've only read a handful of the Tom Clancy novels (and it's been awhile) so I'm not one of those _"It didn't mirror the novel word-for-word so it blows!"_ types. While I almost always prefer a movie that sticks close to the original story, I'm also wise enough to know you can't take a novel the length or breadth of one of Clancy's (or Stephen King's) and expect to compact it into a 120-minutes-or-less screen adaptation. With that said, maybe I'm a bit more forgiving than those who are so heavily criticizing this film but I still found it enjoyable and gripping enough to grab and KEEP my attention throughout. Would I watch it again? Absolutely. In spite of what everyone else is ranting about on here, this was a good film, definitely worth watching.

A nearly perfect thriller with one huge downside and absurdity in the form of an absolutely unbelievable part of the plot: a no-body in the form of a lowly CIA analyst cannot only convince a high-ranking US military person to let him communicate with the Russian president (during the midst of the beginning of a nuclear war between the USA and Russia nota bene (!)) , no, he can even convince the president to abort further nuclear attacks on the USA. Absolutely rubbish and I will never understand what director Phil Robinson and his colleagues where think when coming up with this particular aspect of the plot!

A very enjoyable movie. Good action, filled with suspense and intrigue. It reminds me a little of what the world is facing at this very moment. 23rd June 2025.!

Jack Ryan saves the world once again.

VESA win, supporting visual effects

The Jack Ryan series gets rebooted in the action-packed thriller _The Sum of All Fears_ as Ben Affleck steps into the role. In this installment a young CIA analyst named Jack Ryan must discover the origin of a rogue nuclear attack before the United States and Russia go to war. Unfortunately the story is weakened by post 9/11 politics, but the spirit of Tom Clancy’s novel remains intact. The casting is quite strong, and includes Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Bridget Moynahan, Liev Schreiber and James Cromwell. The directing is also pretty good, and is able to enhance the intensity and suspense of the film. Additionally, Jerry Goldsmith’s score is exceptional and does an impressive job at creating a tense atmosphere. _The Sum of All Fears_ has some script issues, but it delivers the thrills and adventure that has come to be expected from the series.

"I am bomb technician, If you see me running, try and catch up" - love this, and fantastic bit of humor!

I have read Hunt for Red October, that is it for Jack Ryan, so the source material for all of this is lost to me, and I know more Tom Clancy from Rainbow Six games from the late 90's, early 2000's than anything else., so understand my review is from being a college student watching this movie in theaters, to 23 years later.

This movie always worked for me, I don't compare Harrison Ford to Ben Affleck, as if I did, Alec Baldwin would win for Hunt for Red October, it was the best of the lot... That said, this film was fun, it made me laugh (read the first line of the review again), Morgan Freeman has some fun with Affleck, especially early on, and this set-up a possible franchise that we sadly did not et... Imagine Affleck as Ryan while Damon was Bourne, there could have been a Clancy/Lludlum crossover, and that could have been sweet ;)

The problem with this film in the 2020s is that the book it's loosely based on was already out-of-date when it was made. The Jack Ryan novels have not aged well; briefly put, the world-view projected is post Cold War & 'the USA (& particularly the CIA) has won, because the USSR has collapsed'. Not quite how it was turning out, even in the early 2000s.

Then there are the many plot-holes, most visible in the scenes that take place in Baltimore; mobile signal post EMP, anyone?