Review - Jack Ryan: Ghost War - Prime

The long-awaited (by some) return of the Jack Ryan character as portrayed by John Krasinski premiered on Prime last week.

Jack Ryan: Ghost War, an American political action thriller film based on Tom Clancy's work of the same nave, was directed by Andrew Bernstein and written by Aaron Rabin and John Krasinski from a story by Krasinski and Noah Oppenheim.

In case you're keeping score, this is the 6th film and 3rd reboot of Jack Ryan, and it's distributed by Amazon MGM Studios.

Starring Krasinski as Jack Ryan, the film also has Wendell Pierce, Michael Kelly, Max Beesley, J.J. Feild, Douglas Hodge, Betty Gabriel, and Sienna Miller.

SHORT BLURB

Jack Ryan reluctantly allows himself to be pulled back into an espionage operation action in which he reunites with his former CIA "friends" to uncover a deadly conspiracy. The international covert operation goes sideways, and he must go rogue to find those responsible.

MY THOUGHTS

I'd seen the previous Jack Ryan flicks with Krasinski. I remember a couple of them had the Ryan character trying to straddle the line of being hard-core covert operative and a man who found it all distasteful. One was a pretty good action flick.

This most recent offering has Ryan a little more firmly committed to being an effective operative even though he rails against the evil done by the CIA, etc. The opening of the movie has a pretty good action scene even though it's contrived to move the plot to the next act. The middle is a bit of a muddle, but the end gets back to action scenes that move the plot to the finish. 

I think Krasinski initially got the part of Ryan because of his work in the stellar film, 13 Hours. He was riveting in that movie as were the other actors. Of course, a story like Benghazi doesn't come along every day—thank goodness.

So it's probably not fair to compare the storytelling of this movie with that of 13 Hours where Krasinksi shone.

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

If you're looking for light entertainment with an action story, this latest Jack Ryan film should satisfy you.

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