Hey folks, Harry here.... Ya know, if Ms Lansing sticks to her guns and releases this film without pandering to the world of protect everyone's fragile little minds and releases THE SUM OF ALL FEARS as it was shown to this audience in Pasadena last night.... Well... I'll just adore her to death. I'm so sick of the fears of an American Public that can't handle the concept of terrorist threats. Each of us is dealing with it daily now. Everytime I open a strange piece of mail, everytime a friend says they are flying somewhere, when that plane crashed in Queens this week, I freaked and worried about the N.Y. Kitten. But ya know what? I can handle watching a political suspense thriller with the deadliest ramifications. I like Ben Affleck on screen, there's a goofy charisma and good spirited sense of life from him... I'll be very curious to see how he handles playing early Jack Ryan. Here's 3 rave reviews from the screening... Can't wait to see it for myself!!!!
Harry:
Scored a few tix to a screening last night at the PaseoPasadena that turned out to be “The Sum of All Fears.” (woo hoo! Jack Ryan!)
This was my first screening (my friends ALWAYS get tickets,but I never do), I thought they did a great job with the setup (as far as I know)--- new Paseo Pasedena was great, and they had Pinks hotdogs without the nasty long line—excellent... (For those that have never been to Pinks hotdog shack in LA, there is *always* a line time) After downing a couple (heh. Did I say a couple? I meant one) of dogs I was ready for the film.
I thought the film was great, good story line, enough of the “oh shit-what’s next” suspense that’s pretty typical. Without giving away too much, the story was different from thebook in many ways (did I mention I’m a Clancy addict?), but consistent with thewhat else I’ve seen from past films, blah blah blah. Affleck did a good job as Jack Ryan and Morgan Freeman was so good that I didn’t miss James Earl Jones….I totally thought I would. I liked the fact that they took Ryan’s character back in time…….Harrison Ford played the role well, but Ryan was beginning to be limited in how much running around he could undertake the big-man-on-campus position that he had in the last film while keeping the storyline semi-realistic (have you ever seen a big FBI guy running around? I think not). So this one had Ryan out and running around, minus the paunch that you often see on older FBI men (thank god)
Bridget Moynahan, who plays the fiancée of Ryan, has, um“impressed me” before in Coyote Ugly. She….”impressed me” again, if you get my drift….she looked awesome and had good chemistry with Affleck.
Its hard to talk about the movie without details, but I’ll hold off, because I hate reading spoilers. The ending kinda reminded me of some of the Godfather endings and where the film seems to come together with cuts to multiple scenes played to opera music. Very cool, and a nice touch…..so from what I saw, the Sum of All Fear totally kicks ass….(but where was Matt Damon? )
Until later,
Kevo
Sal really seemed to dig it as well...
Hey Harry ˆ
I've been a long time reader of Ain't It Cool but have
never had anything to submit before -- until now. So
last night, I was checking out the new mall (the Paseo
Pasadena if you are ever in the area) up here in
Pasadena and this guy offered me a ticket to a
screening of some new movie. He wouldn't give me any
details but just told me it was a movie that involved
a terrorist act and two superpowers. Gee, that could
be just about anything. Had some time to kill so I
took him up on his offer.
Well, I'm glad I had nothing to do because the movie
ended up being Sum of All Fears -- the latest Clancy
flick -- and had Ben Affleck in it as a young Jack Ryan
which seems a little out of place considering that
we've already seen 3 Jack Ryan movies and he's pretty
old by this point. So, Affleck becomes Jack Ryan
(guess we won't be seeing Harrison in these again) in
this one -- he's not married but is dating a beautiful
doctor (I'm spacing on her name right now but I think
she was in Coyote Ugly) and is working a desk job at
the CIA.
I don't want to give away too many spoilers but
basically it involves a nuclear bomb, the United
States, Russia, Nazi facists and a football game -- all
the ingredients needed for a great Jack Ryan movie.
Reminded me slightly of the movies they used to
release in the 1980s -- remember Red Dawn?
The film had so many things going on that I was
exhausted by the time I left and could barely focus to
fill out the questionnaire they handed out. I forced
myself to focus though because the question that
popped out at me was about whether or not the current
crisis situation impacted my interest in these types
of movies. Well, I've been thinking a lot about that
in the last couple of months as I'm sure everyone has
-- and I say MOVE AHEAD with action flicks where good
wins out over evil and peace is found somewhere in
between all of the chaos and confusion! God bless
America -- land that I love.
Bye
Sal
Mr Anonymous thinks it was pretty damn good...
Hey Harry,
Long time reader, first time scooper blah blah blah. I just caught a test
screening of Sum of All Fears with Ben Affleck and Morgan Freeman.
No spoilers, don't worry...which is gonna make it really hard to describe how
this movie worked.
Overall, it was pretty damn good. It's about terrorism (no secret), and the
resultant buildup of tension between Russia and the US. It's based on a Tom
Clancy book, obviously, so you get the basic idea. It started out so-so, with
a lot of character development for Ben Affleck's character...semi-enjoyable.
The cinematographer had this unhealthy obsession with jamming the camera into
people's faces, as though tell us "look! we're being personal and intimate!"
Unfortunately, there was also a lot of this in Affleck's last picture, Pearl
Harbor. Am I sensing a pattern, here...?
Anyway, you get through half the movie without so much as a flinch. Been
there, don that kind of political drama stuff. Why pay eight bucks when you
can watch West Wing for free?
I'm gonna include the spoiler, with a big label. If you don't want to read
it, skip below.
SPOILER: Midway through the film, Detroit is levelled by a nuclear explosion.
NON-SPOILER: Midway through the film, something INCREDIBLE happens.
The entire audience just sat stock upright and stared. Huge eyes, gaping
jaws. The gasp that went up in the theater drowned out the movie. If you
wanted to know what the reaction to a movie about terrorism would be in our
current times, there you have it. At this point in the movie, people will
either hate it or love it.
The way that it's portrayed is, to say the least, disturbing. Anyone who
wasn't on Mars on September 11th, or hasn't since been vegetablized by a
lobotomy or something, is going to be at least a bit shocked. Sort of answers
the question: "would studios have the balls to do that?"
Sadly, the rest of the movie is pretty unrealistic, because at the time it
was written, they didn't know what the reaction to something like that would
be. So they pretty much avoided it. They focused only on the President and
his officers, and Ben Affleck's character, and the rubble. No attention to
any outside reactions. That, I think is their biggest flaw.
Anyway, the ending is completely satisfying. I walked out generally pretty
pleased, and quite entertained. Mediocre acting, okay special effects, but
EXCELLENT story.
Hope this was of some help.
Mr. Anonymous
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