TheRetroCritic

Here's a movie so memorable it took me like a month to realise I hadn't even officially reviewed it yet... Yes, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit was this year's new attempt to bring the late Tom Clancy's character Jack Ryan to the screen in a big-budget blockbuster action thriller. The film was directed by Kenneth Branagh and stars Branagh himself as the big bad cartoon Russian villain while Ryan is portrayed by Chris "Captain Kirk" Pine. The film opens on Jack Ryan studying economics in London before witnessing the 9/11 attacks on TV. This somehow leads him to become a top dog marine in the US army but, after a helicopter crash, he is soon dragged to hospital where he slowly but surely learns to walk again and regain his strength. Eventually, Kevin Costner's CIA agent shows up and hires him for a mission which would involve Ryan checking out if the Russians aren't maybe doing some shady deals with the markets, which, it turns out, they are. Ryan is se