Film Snail

6.1

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

PG-13·2014·105m

Action

Drama

Thriller

Action

Drama

Thriller

Summary

Jack Ryan, as a young covert CIA analyst, uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy with a terrorist attack.

Cast

Chris Pine

Jack Ryan

Keira Knightley

Cathy Muller

Kevin Costner

William Harper

Kenneth Branagh

Viktor Cherevin

Lenn Kudrjawizki

Constantin

Colm Feore

Rob Behringer

Gemma Chan

Amy Chan

Alec Utgoff

Aleksandr Borovsky

Peter Andersson

Dimitri Lemkov

Nonso Anozie

Embee

Aleksandar Aleksiev

Cherevin's Bodyguard

Deborah Rosan

Customer

Price Lindsey

Waiter

Celine Jedidi

Restaurant Diner

Ricky Rajpal

VIP Business Man

Karen David

FBI Lead Agent

David Paymer

Dixon Lewis

David Hayman

Sergey Dostal

Amy J. Kim

UN Announcer

Bogdan Kominowski

Mr. Borovsky

Maggie Daniels

Mrs. Borovsky

Annika Pergament

Mary

Seth Ayott

Teddy Hefferman

Andrew Byron

Cherevin's Bodyguard

Derek Lea

Cherevin's Bodyguard

Andy Butcher

Cherevin's Guest Driver

Pat Kiernan

Anchor

Ian Bonar

Student

Elena Velikanova

Катя

Lloyd Bass

Harper's Driver / Exfil Operator

Santino Fontana

Running Banker

Mikhail Baryshnikov

Minister Sorokin (Uncredited)

Matt Rippy

FBI Lead Agent Simmons - Dearborn

Kieron Jecchinis

Walter Reed Doctor

William Meredith

Auto Plant Guard

Leonard Redlich

Cherevin's Doctor

Angus Wright

Tall Man

Emmanuel Imani

Omar (uncredited)

Alexander Terentyev

Waiter

Mike Siegel

New York DWP Worker

Donald E G Bentley

Marine (uncredited)

Crew

Director

Kenneth Branagh

Characters, Writer

Tom Clancy

Screenplay

David Koepp

Screenplay

Adam Cozad

Reviews

GenerationofSwine

January 11, 2023

Chris Pine does a really good job, brings his A-Game.

Keira Knightley, well, OK, she is pretty under-rated and ALWAYS seems to bring her A-Game even to the worst possible movies.... and she brought her A-Game again.

And Kevin Costner, well he can be off the mark every now and again, but he seemed to try his best to make this movie good.

And that is why it's watchable. Pine, Knightley, and Costner all bring their best games to this film and do their absolute best to make Shadow Recruit a good movie....

.... and this is despite the HORRIBLE SCRIPT and mostly incompetent direction. Branagh has always been a better actor than he ever was a director, and when it comes to a movie that needs to be taunt and stressful.... they needed someone else.

But then, they also needed a script that could build tension and a director that can work with it, not just do the same trick he failed to execute properly with Frankenstein.

So what you have here are three actors conspiring to save a movie... and unfortunately you need more than three actors doing their absolute best to save a film from a poor script and a poor director.