Sum Of All Fears (DVD)

In such troubled times, as those in which we currently live, the plot of The Sum of All Fears will probably make a few people uncomfortable. Extreme warfare and terrorism on a grand scale seem to have become an ever-present threat these days, and this movie portrays the story of one such terrorist incident. In the 1970s an American fighter jet is shot down over the Egyptian desert and is buried beneath the sand, along with its cargo of one nuclear missile. Decades later, the missile is discovered and sold on the black market to a cartel of world terrorists. Meanwhile, Russia has been plunged into a state of diplomatic chaos by the death of the president and ...  Read the complete review

~ ~ Author Tom Clancy appears to have lost the plot these days when it comes to writing good, exciting thrillers. The last two books of his that I read, ?The Bear and the Dragon? and ?Red Rabbit? were so slow and boring they bordered on being soporific. But his back catalogue is still terrific, and many of his novels have been turned into taut, exciting movies; ?The Hunt For Red October?, ?Patriot Games?, and ?Clear and Present Danger? being three of my own particular favourites. I now have another that I can add to that list. The latest Clancy novel to get the ...  Read the complete review

It seems very wrong to say something benefited from the events of September 11th and the act of terrorism upon America's World Trade Towers but "The Sum of All Fears" certainly has. Without those events, it may just have been another just another retrospective thriller, but in their aftermath, the events which unfold before your eyes here have so much more impact and leave not a nasty taste of 'what if?' in your mouth, but an 'is this the next level?' instead. Tom Clancy penned his novel long before Bin Laden's attack on America, yet his novel was unfortunately way ahead of its time in respect to its content. To adapt it fully to the ...  Read the complete review

Ben Affleck is rookie CIA agent Jack Ryan. He knows a lot about the Russian government and even rightly predicts that the next Russian President will be Nemerov (Ciarán Hinds). When the new president steps in the American president (James Cromwell) and his advisors are worried about the new change in power because of Nemerov's reputation. DCI William Cabot (Morgan Freeman) one of the presidents close friends enlists Ryan to go to Russia with him to inspect the nuclear disarming plants. When they arrive they discover that three of the scientists are missing, the three who when combined can make a bomb. What Ryan and Cabot don't know is that neo nazis, Dressler ...  Read the complete review

I am no fan of the Tom Clancy novels that this film is an adaptation of. Not really being a thriller person, I also hold no store by the hero Jack Ryan, who seems to have grown from a minor personage, to CIA adviser, to Presidential Adviser, to Ruler of the Western Hemisphere followed by Governor of the Milky Way (OK, perhaps those last 2 episodes have yet to be written). This film features the third actor to play Ryan, Ben Affleck. It starts with him as a lowly specialist in post-Soviet Russian politics, especially focussing on a "Red" politician by the name of Nemirov. Ryan has some hot totty for a girlfriend, a nurse whose sole role in the film ...  Read the complete review