BEFORE: This Thanksgiving we went out to Long Island, as we did last year, to my wife's brother's in-laws, and they served up deep-fried turkey, roast turkey (in case the deep-frying went South), and ham, plus all the trimmings, and a pasta course before-hand. So now it's an Italian Thanksgiving that sets the standard for us. Thanksgiving is a great example of what makes our country great, and I don't just mean in a political or religious way - I mean it's a great lesson in economics. City-dwellers like us can hook up with family out in the suburbs and get a full-on home-cooked feast, for just the cost of bringing desserts and a couple six-packs (Blue Point pumpkin ale and Harpoon cranberry ale this year, thanks for asking...). It's like some throwback to the old barter system, which has its advantages.
I'm following up this week's Matt Damon films with a Ben Affleck film, as Jason Bourne leads into Jack Ryan, and Robert Ludlum leads into Tom Clancy. Thanksgiving also makes me think of football, and that also leads me to this film.
THE PLOT: CIA analyst Jack Ryan must thwart the plans of a terrorist faction that threatens to induce a catastrophic conflict between the United States and Russia's newly elected president by detonating a nuclear weapon at a football game in Baltimore.
AFTER: Well, we've got some timeline issues with the Jack Ryan films, now, don't we? Ryan is played here by the 30ish Ben Affleck (last seen in "Extract"), but the film clearly takes place after the end of the Cold War, with references to Ukraine and Chechnya. But Ryan was older when played by Alec Baldwin in "The Hunt For Red October", which was set BEFORE the end of the Cold War. So this was an attempt to freshen the franchise by going back...er...forward...well, OK, I'm not sure what the logic was behind this choice.
This movie was released in 2002, which means that it had to be in production well before Sept. 2001. According to the film's IMDB page, the terrorists were Islamic extremists in Tom Clancy's novel, but the filmmakers changed them to Neo-Nazis since they didn't think that Arab terrorists could strike on U.S. soil. Right.
A character mentions that he has a "back-door" connection to a source in Moscow, and they trade information. Um, isn't that treason? Speaking directly to the Russian president with information obtained on a CIA mission - same deal, right? So thanks for saving the world, but now we have to execute you as a traitor...
There are some other major plot-holes here, which prevent it from scoring higher, but this was still pretty exciting, if not completely believable. There's a little too much focus on what one man can do to stop a nuclear war, where I'm guessing that the CIA's intelligence gathering is probably more of a team effort.
Also starring Morgan Freeman (last seen in "The Bucket List"), Liev Schreiber (last seen in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"), James Cromwell (last seen in "The General's Daughter"), Bridget Moynihan (last seen in "Serendipity"), Ciaran Hinds (last seen in "Miami Vice"), and a bunch of the usual character actors: Philip Baker Hall (last seen in "The Talented Mr. Ripley"), Ken Jenkins (last seen in "The Tailor of Panama"), Ron Rifkin (last seen in "Wolf"), and Bruce McGill.
RATING: 6 out of 10 launch codes
Nothing to do with the movie, but can I just say, I'm thrilled to have an Italian Thanksgiving back in my life. It went missing for so many years...
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