Customer Reviews

The Jack Ryan Special Edition Collection (The Hunt for Red October/Patriot Games/Clear and Present Danger/The Sum of All Fears)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

...Start with Alec Baldwin as a young Jack Ryan, and Sean Connery as a Russian commander in `Hunt For Red October' in one of the greatest submarine movies since Das Boot!

Then you have Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan in `Patriot Games' in a tense drama about the IRA and terrorism (such a beautiful performance by the late Richard Harris as the IRA contact). And then `A Clear and Present Danger' with Jack Ryan uncovering government conspiracies that reach to the Presidential Office.

`Sum of All Fears' has Ben Affleck as the `new' Jack Ryan difusing a war scenario between Russia and the USA after a nuke is exploded in Baltimore.

All these films are seat-grippers in their own right, but I have to say the Harrison Ford films are the best. Like the Connery 007 flicks, they are top notch in cinematography and screenplay writing. Ford is the only Jack Ryan I will remember with detail. Affleck was better in `Daredevil' and `Pearl Harbor' (I believe Pearl Harbor will be the highpoint in his career especially after the horrible `Gigli'...)

This is a guys' set of flicks. You've seen them all on TBS (owns everthing now including `Field Of Dreams'...), BUT, this is a set of movies you want to watch one after the other with a pizza and a surround system.

Movies-
The Hunt for Red October- A brand new hi-Tec Russian sub under the command of Captain Marko Ramius, at the height of the cold war is found to be heading towards the U.S Coast. The Russian and American government believes he is going to attack, only C.I.A analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) believes the truth: he is going to defect... I believe that this is the best and most well made of the four Jack Ryan films. Baldwin far surpasses Ford as Jack Ryan, who in the words of a wise friend is typecast waaaay too much. A must see along with the three other movies. -5 out of 5 stars
-Patriot Games- Jack Ryan and his family are just beginning their vacation in London, when a group of terrorists cease a member of the Royal family, almost kill him in cold blood, but Jack is able to same the Lord, and even takes out one of the terrorists. For his courageous act the kill terrorist?s brother will stop at nothing to kill him and his family.
Patriot Games is not the masterpiece The Hunt for Red October happens to be but with it interesting plot and exciting climax, it come pretty close. As I said in the first review, Ford is a bit over typecast but it barley takes away from the movie. Another exciting must-see. - 4 and a half out of five.
Clear and Present Danger- Jack Ryan has been put unwillingly into the position of head of the CIA, when the Presidents closest friend is murdered. Ties to the drug lords in Colombia are discovered and a military force is sent to Colombia to fight a secret war against them, this was unknown to Jack and soon he finds himself in the cross fire between corrupt Political leaders and gorilla war forces. This is the worst of the Jack Ryan movies I must admit. Although it was a tricky plot and great acting, it just was not as good. The action was toned down and the space between the important parts was too much. Although with it flaws it is still an excellent movie.
-4 out of 5
The Sum of All fears- A young Jack Ryan is just beginning his job as a CIA analyst, at the same time the Russian President is succeeded by a man with an unknown past. Soon the CIA starts to think that the Russian are building more nuclear bombs, but the truth is much more complicated than that: Neo-Nazi terrorists are planning to explode an atomic bomb at the Super bowl. The Newest of the Jack Ryan films still holds up against the classics, even with Ben Affleck replacing Ford as Jack Ryan. The suspense just keeps on building until it explodes...literally...- 4 and a half out of 5

Special Features-
The Hunt for Red October
-Commentary by Director John McTiernan
-Beneath The Surface- Cast and Crew interviews
-Theatrical Trailer
comments- The features on Red October
arn't in great supply, but
they are still very enjoyable.
3 out of 5
Patriot Games
-Patriot Games Up Close- Cast interviews
-Theatrical Trailer
comments- What no commentary? I hate
to say there's not much here.
2 out of 5
Clear and Present Danger
-Behind the Danger- Cast and Crew interviews
-Theatrical Trailer
comments-Ho Hum. Once again no commentary.
2 out of 5
The Sum of All Fears
-Commentary by the director and cinematographer
-Commentary by the Director and Novelist
-The making of The Sum of All Fears
-Creating Reality: The Visual Effects of The Sum of All Fear -Theatrical Trailer
comments
Finally some Commentary and making of's!
This DVD has by far the best special features
of all of the Jack Ryan Movies.
4 out of 5
Final statment: Buy it.
Overall: 4 and a half out of 5

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Paramount/Technical_Glitches/Jack_Ryan_Special_Edition_HD_DVD_Not_So_Special_/1070

Just wanted to put out the word that High Definition Digest is reporting: "In what may end up being the biggest packaging blunder yet for a high-def title, Paramount's 'Jack Ryan Collection' HD DVD appears to have shipped to retail in a deluxe "Special Collectors Edition" box set that contains none of its advertised bonus features."

IF special features are important to your value of this product, you might want to wait a bit until there's some clarification or resolution about purported missing content.

Most people here are writing how they want this or can't wait for it, I actually have it. Someone at Wal-Mart accidentally put these on their shelves recently and I picked one up for myself. I say accidentally because they were recalled months ago because they don't include the extras they claim to have on the box and they've never been re-issued. I also know this because the sales guy had a hard time ringing it up and had to manually input it. He then told me that he wasn't supposed to sell this to me as the computer told him not to, so good for me.

I have no issues with the missing extras because I rarely watch them anyway. The discs don't have any menus either. They just boot right up without previews or a menu.

What's important is the fact that they are all 1080p and offer Dolby Digital Plus and even better Dolby TrueHD audio. So let's get to it.

These films really need no explanation. The first 3 are classic political thrillers and the 4th is a so-so attempt at continuing their success. Tom Clancy's vision is, for the most part executed well on these films.

I had the first 3 already on standard dvd so I had a nice comparison. Each transfer looks better than the one before it. That's typical as newer films upgrade easier to high def. But all of them look better than their standard counterparts. I noticed some specks on each of them but not for any reason other than I was looking for it. But these films are a difficult upgrade as most of the scenes take place inside a house, office, or outside on overcast days. So they don't give you the 3D pop your probably looking for. But they are pretty sharp and are the best transfers we'll see for a very long time. As a side note, in typical studio fashion, I'd completely expect Paramount to use these same transfers and port them over for the eventual Blu-Ray release. No studio has ever made a separate transfer for HD DVD and Blu-Ray yet, so I don't expect that to change.

The audio, well this is where these discs pop. And I mean POP!!! We're given some truly thunderous transfers here. Normally it would be fine to receive a Dolby Digital Plus track as an upgrade but I'm confused why Paramount bothered here because they also included the superior Dolby TrueHD tracks on each disc as well. These films sounded good to begin with on standard dvd (especially October) but these new transfers are just incredible. They easily trounce the old ones. The scores, sound effects, gun shots and explosions are absolutely thrilling. This is all moot if you don't have a proper surround system to decode and dish out the TrueHD tracks though. If thats the case, then you may want to consider keeping your standard discs if you have them because the audio is the clear selling strong point for the upgrade, whether it be HD DVD's or the eventual Blu-Rays.

I'm impressed and very satisfied with these discs. I'd recommend them for any HD enthusiast looking for a worthy upgrade for their favorite Tom Clancy films. Again, I stress you'll be much more impressed by the HD audio here rather than the passable but not demo worthy HD video. I give this set a 4 out of five because even though difficult, I believe if they really wanted to, Paramount could've and should've given these films a better makeover than they got. I've seen older films than these look better than these. There are also some occasional specks in the transfers and while I didn't find it in abundance or distracting, I do feel it's inexcusable at this point in the Hi Def's life cycle, especially for these movies. Overall though, I recommend them.

The only reason to have this collection is because someone loves the novels and character of Jack Ryan (as I do). All 4 movies have their ups and downs, being Harrisond Ford my personal favorite to play Jack Ryan. But it is certainly worth mention the performance of such great actors as James Earl Jones, Sean Connery, Morgan Freeman and Willem Dafoe. What I also like of these movies is there is no pretension to become anything else but stories very well written and remaining true to the original novels by Tom Clancy.
If you love thrillers, you'll not be dissapointed and will probably have a great time.

Even if you have the original DVD, buy this collection, because it has much better sound (DTS) and better picture transfer. At this price this is a bagen.

This is ridiculous, Paramount cancelling this HD DVD version of the Jack Ryan Collection even though they have 100,000's of thousands that want this on HD DVD.

Pathetic for Paramount to just flat out screw around with consumers. They've lost my business.

I really like this collection particularly because there are many Jack Ryans in these movies. Depending on the movie / actor, the facets of the character change. It's fun.

Having all of these great movies in one collection makes this an unbelivable offer. Worth every penny.

Tom Clancy's CIA operative Jack Ryan headlined six novels and, in 1989, was first personified by Alec Baldwin in the submarine chasing thriller The Hunt For Red October, which also starred Sean Connery. With the success of that film, plans were put forward to film the remaining Jack Ryan stories as a "James Bond for the 1990s" (the Bond films being "off air" due to legal wrangling at the time) and Philip Noyce immediately began directorial duties on Patriot Games. Alec Baldwin priced himself out of continuing as Ryan, so Harrison Ford was brought in to spearhead the projected franchise. With its IRA storyline, Patriot Games was controversial but successful. The 1995 follow up, A Clear and Present Danger, did not manage the same appeal and Ford retired from the role, much to Tom Clancy's relief as he felt Ford to be too old anyway.

Eight years later, Ben Affleck debuted as a younger Ryan in The Sum of All Fears, but hopes that this would reboot the Jack Ryan franchise proved fruitless. Plans to film the remaining novels have remained in the ideas department, though there are whisperings of a new movie featuring a new actor in the role. Here is hoping.