SUM OF ALL FEARS, THE
Released: May 31, 2002
Ahhhh, it's another in the Jack Ryan series of movies based upon the novels by Tom Clancy. A young Ben Affleck takes over from the roles once played by much older actors Harrison Ford and Sean Connery. The Ryan character is placed into present day times yet is rejigged to be a younger version just entering into his career of CIA analyst. Once you get over the Hollywood time travelling and parallel time lines, you discover a pretty standard fare action movie that mostly leaves your memory as you exit the theatre (or hit "rewind" on your VCR remote, or hit "open" on your DVD player). Morgan Freeman, Liev Schreiber and James Cromwell slum through this rather bland terrorist thriller. Of note is why less-than-prolific director Phil Alden Robinson came out of seclusion to helm this thing. He has done some good movies - such as "Field Of Dreams" and Robert Redford in "Sneakers" but this is just Hollywood by numbers for the most part. Also of note is that the terrorist theme was written long before 9/11 - and because of 9/11 had its release date pushed back by almost a half year. Affleck is fine as an action hero but I'd rather see him tackle dramas like "Changing Lanes" more...
Paramount
123 Minutes