Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

(Image credit: Larry Horricks)

Chris Pine steps into the shoes of Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck to play quick-witted CIA analyst Jack Ryan in this slick spy adventure

Chris Pine steps into the shoes of Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck to play quick-witted CIA analyst Jack Ryan in this slick spy adventure.

Taking US author Tom Clancy's patriotic hero back to the start of his career, this film follows Ryan out in the field on an undercover mission to Moscow. His task? Stop a vengeful Russian oligarch (Kenneth Branagh, who also directs) from bringing down the US economy by sending the dollar into freefall.

The plot is nothing special, with standard-issue office break-ins and routine car chases, right down to the inevitable ticking bomb climax.

However, there are some standout sequences, too, especially a a suffocatingly tense assassination attempt when Ryan arrives in Moscow.

Pine does an excellent job in the lead and gets splendid support from Kevin Costner as his tight-lipped CIA mentor and Keira Knightley as his feisty doctor girlfriend. The couple's byplay produces enjoyable flashes of wit after, to his dismay, she unexpectedly arrives in Moscow, he's forced to come clean about his job and she ends up helping on the mission.