Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

The everyman of our generation, Jack Ryan is the guy most women want to end up with – and the guy who most men would kill to be.

Chris Pine, the Bombay Sapphire-eyed star of 2013 summer blockbuster Star Trek: Into Darkness, has stepped in and admirably filled the shoes of his predecessors Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck, to put on what could be argued as one his best performances on screen to date. It’s impossible to excoriate his portrayal of the analyst-turned-field-agent, as Pine commands Ryan’s probity to commandeer a show of skill that is almost insurmountable – if anyone is going to top it in the future, you can bet it’ll be Pine himself.

Paired with the highly commendable Keira Knightley as Cathy Muller, Ryan’s girlfriend, a doctor who is anything but fainéant – as most women regrettably are usually perceived to be in the majority of espionage-action flicks. She is a pivotal part in not only Jack’s social life but later his life as a spy, discovering the plan of their antagonist. The grudge-holding, benevolent, mercurial Russian adversary in question, admirably portrayed by Kenneth Branagh – who also directed the motion picture – tests everything Jack and his team know, and vindictively puts thousands upon thousands of lives on the line to settle a long fuelled animosity towards the American government.

Met with an amalgam of malarkey, with heedless car chases and closely called fist fights hanging out of vans and hotel rooms to name a few, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit truly encapsulates the milieu of the CIA lifestyle, with guns abundantly ablaze from start to finish. With intensity so biting you’ll hang off the edge of your seat and grab the headrest in front of you to shake off the pent up adrenaline building in your system from the suspense, Shadow Recruit is everything the spy genre has ever wanted or needed to be, without even knowing it.

Hannah Ross

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is released nationwide on 24^th January 2014.

Watch the trailer for Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit here: