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Special Features
- The Making of The Sum of All Fears
- Creating Reality: The Visual Effects
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
It's not easy replacing Harrison Ford as a beloved screen hero, but Ben Affleck brings fresh vitality to The Sum of All Fears, reviving Paramount's Tom Clancy franchise in the role Ford made famous. As CIA agent Jack Ryan, Affleck is a rookie in the covert ranks, unraveling a plot that lures Russian and American superpowers into a nuclear standoff, while a neofascist faction turns most of Baltimore into an atomic wasteland and holds the world in the grip of a terrorist nightmare. Affleck combines sharp intelligence with a new-guy's perspective, while a senior agent (Morgan Freeman) passes the torch of back-channel authority. The result is one of the best Clancy films to date, ably helmed by Phil Alden Robinson (whose comic thriller Sneakers was sorely underrated) with a stellar supporting cast, and adapted with abundant humor, humanity, and thrills by Donnie Brasco screenwriter Paul Attanasio and cowriter Daniel Pyne. Even the typically reticent Clancy would approve. --Jeff Shannon
Product Description
Ben Affleck inherits the role of Jack Ryan in this action-packed adaptation of Tom Clancy's novel. When a group of neo-Nazis steals a nuclear bomb, implicating the Russian government, rookie CIA agent Ryan is called in to defuse the situation before all-out war erupts between the U.S. and Russia. With Morgan Freeman, James Cromwell, Liev Schreiber, Bridget Moynahan. 123 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Surround, French Dolby Digital Surround; Subtitles: English; audio commentary; featurette; "making of" documentary; theatrical trailer.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 57 people found the following review helpful
I'm a hard-core Tom Clancy fan and was surprised to see how much this latest film adaptation wandered from the book, but it was still very entertaining. The latest incarnation of Jack Ryan is very young and inexperienced. The film seems to pretend the other Jack Ryan adventures haven't happened. Jack is new with the CIA and doesn't know the ropes the way he does in the book. He isn't even married yet. Morgan Freeman is wonderful as his boss (no surprise there) and the relationship between them is the best part of the film.
I'm no expert, but there seemed to be some technical flaws which required that the viewer suspend their skepticism. (Would cell phones continue to work when your local area has been hit by a nuke?) Still a worthy addition to the series. Clancy's readers will have to be especially open-minded though.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
I've read Clancy (but not this one) and I've seen all the "Clancy" movies many times. My wife drives me nuts by saying, "that wouldn't happen..." so I understand all you who try to analyze the plot for theoretical accuracy. But.... this is a work of entertainment based on fictional accounts of political conflict. Did it entertain? Absolutely. Did Affleck portray Jack Ryan the way Clancy wrote him? Of course. Are the plot points of the movie plausible? Well, maybe, but - that's the point of Clancy. In case you didn't notice, Tom Clancy was executive producer of this film so he certainly had considerable input. Yeah, they changed the chronology of Jack Ryan. Whooppee! That makes Debt of Honor and Executive Orders completely future potential for Ben Affleck as Ryan considering they can now do Cardinal of the Kremlin which they couldn't have done with Harrison Ford. Hmmmm, do we want to see more Clancy movies? Yes!
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Deeply compromised adaptation of the Tom Clancy potboiler. Director Phil Alden Robinson and his cadre of screenwriters tippy-toe around, about, but never directly on, the subject of mass murder by terrorists. The immediate point of comparison to 9/11 in this film would be the small nuclear bomb that presumably obliterates the city of Baltimore, MD. I say "presumably" because we're of course not permitted to see the results of the devastation: Robinson & Co., by the use of very heavy editing, attempt to spare us from associating their fictional event to the real event that occurred a year ago. (Well, some windows are blown out, and a small, rather pretty computer-animated mushroom cloud is perceived for a split-second, indicating the city may not be completely wiped-out, after all.) Indeed, by film's end, it's as if the blast never occurred: in the last scene, Ben Affleck and his pretty wife are having lunch in the park. The End. One wonders why the film studio simply didn't scrap this whole project and eat the loss, if they were so fearful of the movie's subject-matter. Why go to the trouble of making a movie about a catastrophic event if you're not even going to play that event for dramatic value? Of course, the supreme irony is that the fearful filmmakers, who shot this movie before 9/11, changed the Muslim villains of Clancy's story to a cabal of Neo-Nazis, in order to avoid accusations of insensitivity from the Arab-American community. (If what I've heard is true. I've never read the book, myself. If the book doesn't feature Arab terrorists, I stand humbly corrected.) I give *The Sum of All Fears* a 2nd star primarily for the excellent supporting actors (Morgan Freeman, a delightfully smooth Liev Schreiber, James Cromwell, Philip Baker Hall, et al.), and for the overall professionalism of the direction . . . by which I mean that even if the story is implausible, the action sequences are not. However, Ben Affleck, filling the shoes of Harrison Ford as CIA agent Jack Ryan, is a massive liability. Not only is he a skunk at a garden party, in terms of comparison with the rest of the cast, but he makes one appreciate just how good his predecessor in the role really was.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Title Fits: A Very Spine-Tingling Story
Ben Affleck plays Jack Ryan, CIA analyst formerly played by Harrison Ford. Morgan Freeman plays his boss, William Cabot, formerly played by James Earl Jones. Read more
Published 12 hours ago by Barbara Frederick
As bad as the trailer hinted it would be
I only watched this movie because I was bored tonight. The trailer let me know 10 years ago how bad it would be, so I never bothered to see it. Read more
Published 5 days ago by Joe Bobe
Hubby is "IN THIS WORLD" and the movie is realistic
I've read all the reviews form all the "Hard Core " Tom Clancy fans stateing that the movie version is "compromised' not true to the book, blah ,blah blah WELL as the wife of a... Read more
Published 1 month ago by CHINATOUCHE1
Unbelievable
I have seen three of Tom Clancey's novels (turned into movies). This has to be my favorite. I like that they take Jack Ryan back and he's not married, but is in love with the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Dalene Bavelas
Very good movie
this movie has it all. Action, suspense, romance, spies, ninjas, and even a monster. Ok, the ninja is a former Navy Seal, and the monster is a big German thug, but you get the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by David M. Owens
A cartoon when compared to reality.
The trend in films, since the 1990's, has been to reduce the aftermath of an atomic or nuclear bomb explosion to that of old fashioned, non-radioactive bomb. Read more
Published 4 months ago by eswan
Great action, acting, and plot
This is truely a great movie from when the suspense begins to the end. I wont get into the details since it has been reviewed on here before. Read more
Published 5 months ago by historyone
Suspense: Applause and Curtain Call for Tom Clancy and Cast
THE SUM OF ALL FEARS may be 10 years old not but it packs a wallop no matter how many times it is viewed. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Grady Harp
A half-cooked bore...
The problem I have with this film is that it isn't thorough enough to really make an impact, and so it wastes some charisma and top-notch special effects on a plot that feels... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Andrew Ellington
Scary as hell
I just watched this movie again and I have to admit, it gets me every time. When I first saw this in the theaters it really effected me. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Ben T.
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