Blu-ray Review: The Sum of All Fears

DVD Reviews

By Jeff Swindoll Jul 29, 2008, 19:45 GMT

The four Jack Ryan films are making their high def debut and I decided to start with the latest one. It attempted to reboot the series, but I found myself laughing when someone called Ben Affleck “DR. Jack Ryan.” Aside from those giggles there are some moments of suspense and action.

Dr. Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck) is a low-level intelligence analyst in the CIA. A new president, Alexander Nemerov (Ciaran Hinds), in Russia has risen to power when the elderly president dies and Ryan wrote a book about Nemerov. The director of central intelligence William Cabot (Morgan Freeman) asks Ryan to go with him to Russia to inspect some nuclear weapons facilities and get an even greater handle on Nemerov.

Some junk dealers don’t know what they’ve got on their hands find a nuclear bomb lost in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War. They sell it to an arms dealer named Olson (Colm Feore) who in turns sells it to the neo-nazi organization ran by Richard Dressler (Alan Bates). Dressler’s plan is to set off the bomb and make it look like the Russians did it to cause a war between the superpowers. Tensions are high between Russian and President Fowler (James Cromwell) when Russian gasses a small town in Chechnya and Nemerov takes responsibility for it (even though it was a rogue general that ordered the attack). When Cabot and Ryan were in Russia, three Russian nuclear scientists were missing at the facility and Cabot’s covert operative says that the Russian government does not know where they are. Cabot sends undercover operative John Clark (Liev Schreiber) to find out what happened to them. Meanwhile, Dressler’s operatives have covertly placed the nuclear bomb in close proximity to the president and the resulting explosion threatens to throw the world into a nuclear war, just as Dressler wants. However, Ryan knows that Nemerov is not responsible for the explosion, but he has to convince the higher pay grades that he knows what he’s talking about. The Sum of All Fears is the latest adaptation of a Tom Clancy Jack Ryan novel to grace the silver screen. It was decided to try and reboot the series and called for a recasting and in some ways forgets what came before. Ryan is no longer married but dating Dr. Catherine Muller (Bridget Moynahan). They also hoped that the audience that they would be appealing to would not have seen the other films in my opinion as several plot points seem to be taken from Hunt for Red October - such as Ryan being the one that has knowledge of the Russian president, the higher pay grades not listening to Ryan’s advice, and the Russian president not being as untrustworthy as first imagined.

In all honesty, I should say that I’ve not read any of Clancy’s books so those plot bits may be the same in them. However, Clancy starts off the commentary he’s featured in with the introduction of being the author of the book that the filmmakers ignored so maybe so. I do know the villains of the novel were Muslim extremists and they’ve been changed to neo-nazis for the film. I’m not sure if this was for political correctness, it would appear to be for some of the plot. Some blame 9/11 for the change but the film was in production long before those horrific events. What I found most laughable was the casting of Affleck, as he seems too young and shiny for the role - especially coming after Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford. I just didn’t believe him in the role. The rest of the cast are seasoned pros and perform well, not that Affleck acts poorly I just didn’t buy him in the role. The Sum of All Fears is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.35:1). Special features include a commentary from director Phil Alden Robinson and cinematographer John Lindley. A second commentary has Robinson and author Tom Clancy. The 30-minute “The Making of Sum of All Fears” chronicles the production and is in standard definition. The 27-minute “Creating Reality” covers the visual effects of the film and is also in standard definition. Finally, the films 2-minute theatrical trailer is in high definition. The Sum of All Fears is pretty fearful during the nuclear explosion and has some moment of great action. It’s the star of the film that tended to mess things up for me since I didn’t see Affleck as Jack Ryan.