'Shadow Recruit' is the Chris Pine "Jack Ryan" reboot sandwiched between the Ben Affleck and John Krasinski ones. Is it a faithful take? I'm hearing no. Is a satisfying thriller? I thought so.
The movie is situated well in time with Ryan joining the Marines due to 9/11, being shot down and injured in Afghanistan and subsiquently working a decade on Wall Street as a "shadow agent" for the CIA. He goes full active when a Russian businessman (Kenneth Branagh, who also directs) plots to tank the U.S. economy. Kevin Costner is the mentor figure and Kira Knightly the love interest.
Lots of good set pieces, the hotel room fight really kicks things into high gear. I liked the awkward dinner, the Russian car chase, the brainstorming on the airplane and to a lesser extent the US set stuff. I liked all 4 leads, though Pine's Ryan is the least interesting figure amongst the quartet, not great when it's supposed to be his movie. David Paymer has a cameo, a pre stardom Gemma Chan is in this and Colm Feore who played a bad guy in 'Sum of All Fears' is a good guy here. Quite a bit better then I was expecting. ***
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