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A look at THE SUM OF ALL FEARS!
Hey folks, Harry here... From the trailers to just about everyone I know and have heard from... SUM OF ALL FEARS seems to be working pretty good. Lansing at Paramount has done a very good thing in following through with this film instead of placating the 'sensitives' that would remove this sort of material. I have a great deal of hope for this one. Here's the latest report...
Hi Harry. Saw a test screening of The Sum of All Fears in Pasadena this week, and it's taken me this long to put my thoughts in order. First of all, it's an amazing film. Even though they changed quite a bit from the book, it feels more like a Tim Clancy film than any of the previous ones. In the first half hour or forty-five minutes or so, a lot of different characters and places and stories are introduced, and the movie slowly at first starts to bring all these different parts together, and about halfway through, when all hell breaks loose, the movie just races from that point on. It's really exciting, and the tension was almost unbearable.
It's extremely topical, and everyone I talked to afterwards agreed this is a very valuable film for today, because it's just different enough from the headlines (I'm happy as can be that the bad guys aren't Arabs because it would have made the whole thing much too close for comfort) for us to watch and learn something from. The movie is not about an act of terrorism, it's about the reaction to terrorism: what do you do, how do you respond?
It's a very smart story, with so many complications and so many things just mentioned once that you really have to pay attention to get it all, and I'm sure I missed a bunch. Maybe it was the unfinished sound track, but I definitely want to see it again to see what I missed.
The acting is excellent. Ben Affleck starts off playing the charming young guy we've seen him do before, and then he gets thrown into very difficult situations where he has to sink or swim. I find it so much more interesting to see a character who isn't an action superhero have to handle situations like that. It's pretty clear they decided to make a different kind of action film - a smarter one, in which the action isn't made pretty or romanticized. In fact, there's a brutal fight that Jack gets into late in the film that results in nothing. The point being that violence doesn't allow Jack to solve the problem: information does, and that's one of the main points of the movie. Morgan Freeman is amazing (as always), the President (the farmer from Babe) and all his advisors show us something we don't often get to see: what it must really be like when the top guys get together and they don't have a clue as to what's going on. At the beginning of the film, they have a practice! exercise in which everything goes smoothly and orderly. Then, when they have to deal with the real thing, we see what it must really be like. Not enough information, people's nerves getting frayed, tempers flaring, confusion. Really good stuff.
I didn't recognize the Russian President, but he was really interesting. Charismatic. Live Schrieber is terrific as John Clark, and Jack's girlfriend is wonderful: beautiful and funny.
There's more humor in this film than the previous ones (in the first half, anyway), and it's more human because of it.
The terrorist attack is handled with as much tact as possible. They don't rub your noses in gore and bloodshed, but they make it shocking and disturbing with as little actual footage as possible. I really appreciated that. They don't try to get our rocks off with violence.
The three of us who went to this screening haven't stopped talking about it yet, and I can't wait to see the finished version.
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that's a fake review...guarenteed
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Yeah, the book was great in the way it managed competing storylines to build it all into one amazing conclusion. Hopefully the movie will follow suit. Can't wait to see it.
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Hope this film is better than the last Clancy.
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I've already been looking forward to this film for a long time, and I did not need this halfwitted dork to write some dumbass review with no nerve or even a sense of critisicm. I find the review too naive... maybe he haven't even seen the movie??? Sounds a bit weird...
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If you haven't how can you say this guy is naive? Don't sound off until you have the evidence to back up your criticism with.
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IF that shitty review isn't a plant review then I DONT KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS! Harry heres an idea. Maybe from now on you could do something truly extraordinary like .... gee.... I dunno .... check a friggin reviewers references. You know, might be something worth looking into. OH but who am I kidding right? That would obviously slow down your reporting of such "high quality" material such as this review. OH we can't have that! Uughhhhh! Keep up the primo work big guy. YEAH ...... RIGHT!
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This seemed an honest review to me, he slightly criticises the opening 45 minutes, he didn't know who James Cromwell was by name but by face, and made a point of mentioning certain elements without giving spoilers left right and central. I'll probably go and see it. -
......I just find the bloke really annoying, and his acting skills leave alot to be desired. I still can't believe this guy's playing Daredevil......
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This may be very fanboyish, but to change SoAF into a young Jack story really dooms the rest of the series. If you're a fan and haven't read the books by now, then move on, I'm going to spoil them.
The story in SoAF propels Jack to the presidency at the end of the next book (Debt of Honor). When the sitting president in SoAF has a nervous breakdown after the attack, it is Jack, stationed at the national command center (not out in the field) who keeps US nukes from flying. When that president resigns, his VP will then nominate Jack to become the new VP during DoH.
And the sad part for me, is that I think Debt of Honor is a better story. It's not about Russians or Mid-East terrorists.
Also, they're going to make a Rainbow Six movie. How does John Clark get to lead a multi-national anti-terror group without support from PRESIDENT Jack Ryan? They're going to have to fiddle with Without Remorse and the back story to R6 to make it work.
End of Fanboyness. -
I don't see any of you submitting reviews for any movies so shut the hell up. And as far as checking credentials of reviewers, yeah right. Grow a brain. How many people go to see movies that Harry doesn't know? And just what credentials is he supposed to be checking for? Passport? Pulse? How do we know that YOU don't work for a rival movie company? Where are YOUR credentials?
This is the second review I've read on this film. The first was over at Dark Horizons. The reviewer there pointed out some of the same highlights and plot weaknesses but he had more problems with the film than this guy did. After reading his review and how far from the book it strays I'm surprised they are still using the same title. I've never read the books so I can't speak as a Clancy book fan. I have enjoyed the movies though and since Harrison Ford didn't come back for this one I kinda like the fact that they took it in a different direction with a younger Ryan. I don't think I could have handled it if Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis, or Sylvester Stallone had carried the torch. -
Good god people, especially you Rogue_Leader, chill out. Don't you have something better to do than hypothesize over whether or not a review is planted or not???? If you expect Harry to start doing reference checks etc. then don't be surprised if AICN moves to a subscription service. Personally, I don't care if it's a plant or not. Harry typically gets reviews from multiple sources and posts many of them. Make your decision from the mass, not from the one. Moron.
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I've never forgiven them for destroying the character in Clear and Present Danger. In the books he is easily the coolest there is. What he isn't is Willem Dafoe!
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as much as a hooker with a walkie-talkie
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Harry,
How can you applaud the film for not shirking a sensitive topic and then have it be revealed that, among the significant changes from book to movie, they change who the terrorists are? That is the most contemptible shirking of all. Whatever the film may preach or exhibit about how leaders respond to a crisis or how they ought to, it is ridiculous PC to change what is a crucial and topical element of the book in order to avoid the same type of whiny complaints films like "True Lies" received.
I was looking forward to the movie until I read this review. Instead of delivering a film that hits on a lot of topical themes, it looks like it is going to turn out to be a generic Hollywood actioner with a generic Hollywood enemy.
Sum of All Fears, I dub thee Son of 'The Peacemaker'. -
Funny, he and James Earl Jones are both great actors who bring with them a feeling of wise authority, but their voices are practically dead opposites. Anyway, is Freeman playing Jones's old role? Are these new "Affleck as Ryan" Clancy movies set in the '80's as prequels(I hope)? I still think Affleck is all wrong for Jack Ryan. He's better than Ford, but Alec Baldwin was the best Ryan. Essentially, he was a supporting character, and that's what Ryan should be. But this is Hollywood, they need leading men. Affleck just doesn't do it for me. I just don't like him, it's like seeing the guy who bullied you in high school suddenly starring in all the movies you might have wanted to see. It just ruins it.
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It seems that unless it is a negative review then it is not true. Every talk back I go into I am shocked to see how negative all you so called "fans" of movies can be. Do you even like movies any more? Is it that crazy that someone might actually like a movie and write a positive review. You don't have to tear into every movie and point out its flaws every time you write a review. It is okay to actually like a film. You won't be uncool if you support a movie instead of bashing it. I think the reviewer should be applauded for writing something clear and positive. Unlike the rest of you who are all haters. Don't bother coming to this site anymore if you are going to trash movies without even givening them a chance. Not everything out there has to suck.
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Apr 05, 2002 12:29:26 PM CST
Whenever someone says they toned something down for a film or ma
by superhero
This reviewer sounded so tepid. He seems like one of those people who doesn't like movies that are "too much" of anything and don't make you feel too squeamish, too angry, or too sad. Seems like he likes to just be able to watch a movie and not experience it. This review actually steers me away from this movie. I actually WOULD have preferred that they kept the villains as Middle Easterners as maybe the film could have been TOTALLY relevant to our times instead of just, "Hey, you know what we're REALLY talking about wink, wink." and just glazing over some serious issues that the public DOES need to know about instead of being kept blind to. Gosh, remember when Hollywood used to try and make socially relevant films that talked about the times we live in instead of just covered up action "thillers" that sota show you what could happen as long as you REALLY don't comment on it or offend anyone? UGH. Hollywood sucks. Make political thrillers like THE CANDIDATE, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, SEVEN DAYS IN MAY again Hollywood! Not this crap that doesn't really delve into what the REAL danger is out there. Hell, just even make some comedies like BOB ROBERTS for cryin' out loud. Make your audiences think again fer chrisssakes!!!!!
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The only good flick they ever pulled out of the hack novels(I've read a few of them) was THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. This is not a sacred series. Why not change it up, and try and breath life into it? I'm sure the movie will suck.
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Apr 05, 2002 1:29:02 PM CST
Leave Affleck alone! He was actually kickass in Boiler Room.....
by togmeister
"Anyone who says money can't buy happiness - look at the fucking smile on my face! Ear to ear baby!" Great film, gets no props.
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Movies these days, in general, suck. They suck the life right out of me. Oh sure, on occasion something like Ghost World or Mulholland Drive or No Man's Land comes along, but where's the strong big Hollywood stuff like they made back in the day. The Godfather was the most successful film of all time when it came out. Guys like Scorsese, Altman, Bogdonovich, Lumet, Woody Allen, and even Spielberg (in the 70's) were making landmark films that were not only great films, but were successful. Hell, back then we got Animal House, a funny film about obnoxious college boys. Now we get Van Wilder. I could go on, but I won't. It's not worth it. Walrus, damn funny stuff. You made me smile. On a positive note, I just read that Cripin Glover is staring in a remake of Willard, so there are things to look forward to. Sometimes there just hard to find.
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I agree. This just reveals that we are all so over-sensitive that we are afraid of the truth. The truth is that the Clancy book was about Arab terrorists and their threat to America. That was a major ingredient and the point of the book. The IRA, or whomever they substituted has nothing to do with what Clancy was saying. All you people who are so afraid of offending are hiding your heads in the sand.
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"It's really exciting, and the tension was almost unbearable." ... this is -- hands-down -- the most horribly-written review I've seen on here since the old-skool days. Harry, I thought you said you weren't going to accept any more reports from the kid-in-the-helmet?
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Firstly they've substituted neo-nazis for arabs in the movie, but secondly the IRA would have been a great choice for a substitute despite what other talkbackers say. Rainbow Six was a Clancy book that delt with many different types of terrorism (one of which was the IRA). Because many factions of this organization see America's influence to end conflict in Ireland as disastous to the cause for independence its feasible that such a group would be interested in seeing this super-power destroyed almost as much as Arabs would.
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But I don't see him as Ryan.
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It opened with a nuke crashing on a farm in Lebannon and being buried in the 1967 or 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Cut to today were a group of Palestinians are leading a peaceful protest on the Temple Mount and a bigoted, facist Israeli soldier loses his cool and shoots the leader of the protest in the head, and it's all caught on camera. (Did you see the footage this week of the IDF beating the peaceful protesters in the head ala South Africa circa 1985.) To retaliate the PLO/Hamas/Al-Qada/any other name you can think of find the nuke that has worked its way too the surface, extract the core, and decide to use it in the U.S. at the Super Bowl. The terrorists recruit members of The American Indian Movement to help them in the U.S. (change AIM to militia movement and you have the OKC Bombing. Yes, it looks like Tim McV. got help from the Al-Qada cell in the Philippines. That would also explain why he would not talk: his sister would have been killed along with most of the rest of his family.) One character mentions "Black Sunday" as an homage. If you have seen the trailer you know the rest. But Viacom did not want to offend the Arabs so they changed it to the Milita Movement/Aryan Nation/KKK. It's now a Bond film. The only tie to the book is the title, some plot points, and the main character's name.-----later-----m
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I'll just put a little Robert Plant on the ol' discman and go outside to the garden with these bulbs and...
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Anyone who reads and loves Clancy's books do not care what Hollywood does with the movie 'adaptation'...Clancy doesn't care because he's not a moviemaker and doesn't have interest in being one, he got his check and moves on to the next book. I find it funny that so many people don't understand why he has no interest...he wrote the book, it's still in print and the movie doesn't change that! Why is it that Hollywood people and many movie buff's think EVERYONE should desire to work in the movie business? Anyone who thinks that changing the terrorist's from Arab and American Indians to neo-nazi's was ANYTHING other than P.C. is completely ignorant...'cause we all know how many neo-nazi terrorists are running around with stolen nukes! jeez, if the studio was truly brave they wouldn't have changed this element of the story, and this was a pre-9/11 change...I call that cowardice!!!!
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Ben Afleck doesn't look likes he's put in a hard days work at anything in his entire life. He doesn't have that weathered, leather skin, steel eye, rough hands, tough guy look. He is too boyish. A real tough guy look like Eastwood, or McQueen had when they were younger, would be better suited to the character of Jack Ryan.
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Apr 06, 2002 2:27:41 AM CST
Ben Affleck is great, listen to his commentaries on Mallrats
by tall_boy
the dude steals the show. also,Ryan is supposed to look like a wuss, he's an deskboy.
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The only actor in my eyes that can play John Clark (one of the baddest mothers of all time!) is David Morse (Brutal, from The Green Mile). Talk about understated intensity! And you all forget that John Clark is a big dude, not some little shrimp like William Defoe. That's all I got to say about that.
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How do they explain using Morgan Freeman in a role orginally played by James Earl Jones who is roughly the same age but have Ben Affleck play Harrison Fords role when he is half Harrisons age? Aren't there any other black actors in their mid-thrities that they could have gotten?
PS I do really like Morgan Freeman though. -
Personally I think Affleck is perfect for the role of a young Ryan. The ideal candidate of course was the first in Alec Baldwin, who if he had stuck with the franchise might have more of a career. I also agree with Clancy insaying that Harison Ford while one of my favorite actors of all time, was much to old for the roles when he played them.
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..yet you bashed the reviewer just because he doesn't condemn the movie like you guys are doing? I know that the Talkbackers are supposed to hate movies and all, but this is ridiculous. So what if he likes the movie? At least he forms his opinion after he has seen it, which is better than writing a review without checking it out first, like most people here are doing. Sheesh.
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I'm nobody's plant - no one told me to write anything - and the movie is fucking great.
Here's the deal: if you go to it with an open mind, you might actually love it. If you go to it with a hard-on for it, you'll hate it.
What a surprise.
The suspense, the effects, the acting, the shooting, everything about it totally fucking rocks. You just can't sit there saying "Why did they change this, why did they change that?" It's movie, folks. Just watch the movie. Sheesh.
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Freeman doesn't play the same character as James Earl Jones. Totally different character.
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As long as Liev Schrieber nails the character of John Kelly/Clark, I'll be happy. Willem DeFoe just didn't cut it. He's a fine actor, but not the right actor. In "Without Remorse", Kelly was described as being big, a football type with blue eyes, an ex-SEAL. Willem just doesn't strike me as that, not physcially anyway. I'll go see this movie just to see Liev playing Clark.
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It seems that everything has been done before, and done better at that. Washed up and I'm not even old enough to run for president yet. Ben Affleck only seems like a real actor in comparision to, say, Freddie Prinze Jr. Morgan Freeman is one of the best actors in history. Not that he has incredible range, but he has the distinct ability to look credible no matter how bad the movie is. Any actor can look decent with a good script and good director, but Freeman can be surrounded by shit and still come out looking ok. Imagine if he was actually in more movies that were actually good. Which this movie will not be. Yawn.
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That is the most stupid thing I have ever heard. I really am quite taken back that you would say something so pussy-like. Let me explain:
According to your logic, we learn more completely from experiences separated from our ordinary lives, and we learn less completely from those intertwined in our lives. SWEET ALLAH, for crying out loud! If we hide from our experiences, what good are we as a society? Pussies we are as Yoda would say. -
All these brainless prole automatons eager to be indoctrinated by Hollywood Big Brother. "Comrades, you must forget all the terrorist attacks by Islamic fundamentalists! They never happened! There is no such THING as an Islamic terrorist! No, the REAL enemy to our security is the vile NEONAZIS! Big Brother will protect you from the dreaded Neonazi threat, but you must do your part by allowing yourself to be reeducated by the Minitrue in the REAL history of terrorism as perpetrated by the Hitler disciples! Sing along, comrades: FREEDOM IS SLAVERY! WAR IS PEACE! IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH! Louder, comrades!
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Apr 07, 2002 12:36:18 AM CST
This "review" is a total FAKE. Harry, who sent this in? Did y
by the_lion
phoney
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I saw an earlier test screening than this reviewer did, and although I had a few minor quibbles with a point or two, I thought the film was totally fucking great. Easily the best of all the Jack Ryan films.
It does take a while to get going, I mean there's a shitload of story to tell and set up, but I think it was all necessary, and once the shit hits the fan, it's as tense as anything I've seen in a long time. -
Who cares if the review is a plant? Sure, it smells of deceitfulness . . . Yes, the movie may very well stink . . . Frankly, Ben Affleck's past record as a leading man is not particularly good. Anyway, we've already seen him do a bad Alec Baldwin impression in Boiler Room - the question is: are we in store for more of the same? Who knows? Sum of All Fears will either come together like Bush/Cheney's energy policy after meeting with big energy concerns or explode into a mushroom cloud. Every movie has a chance to succeed or fail - still, you can't make that determination until it is released. Discussing Affleck's past work, conversing in regard to old Ryan projects etc . . . That's cool. Ripping a film apart before it is even released is not. Like I've said in the past: each motion picture is a 5 out of 10 going in. The film either gains momentum or loses steam from that starting point. I will never land upon a 5 as my final rating - every flick is either good or bad (in varying degrees, of course). So hold the phone on the negativity. Go see the movie first. If it licks hardcore, feel free to bitch. You bought your ticket . . . Wait until your position can become validated by by facts. Remember, having an informed opinion is what it's all about. In the past, Affleck has not delivered as a tough, leading man . . . From Pearl Harbor back to whenever - he comes across as a lug who would breakdown and cry over misplacing a paper clip. But, who knows what the future holds? Maybe the guy is ready to put forth a career-turning performance? Am I an optimist? I'm open-minded . . . Hey, don't knock something until you've tried it.
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Old Blood and Guts Affleck. That guy just oozes testosterone when he stands still. I just love it when he makes that "look". You people laugh now, but he's just getting warmed up with a whole slate of pictures. He's already giving away major awards on major award shows to major celebrities. In the future, they'll have Ben Affleck film festivals. Let's all go sign up for the Ben Affleck fan club right now! He's the perfect man for the new millenium. A pussy.
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Miguel Ferrer. Or am I crazy? I think he's got that cold look Clark should have down to a science
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