Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Chris Pine takes on the mantle of the eponymous US intelligence officer who survives an helicopter crash in the Mediterranean Sea only to be recruited by "Harper" (Kevin Costner) into the community at Langley where he is to investigate dodgy financial activities. It's this task that alerts him to the dubious antics of "Cherevin" (Kenneth Branagh) who seems to be mis-declaring his accounts and syphoning off large sums. Why? Well the conspiracy theorists readily believe his suggestion that this is all part of a not very cunning plan to destabilise the dollar and bankrupt his United States. "Ryan" is to be sent to Moscow but that poses two problems. He's just an analyst and reluctant to take to the field, and his rather possessive girlfriend "Cathy" (Keira Knightley) suspects that he's at it! Anyway, off he goes into the lion's den and before he can get to the bottom of things, she makes an annoying surprise visit and soon both are on the hit list of the nasty Russian and his seemingly inexhaustible army of goons who couldn't hit the Kremlin with an Howitzer. Pine does fine here and despite his thick accent, so does Branagh - but Costner is pretty flat and Knightley is just plain terrible. She manages to create a character that just irritates from start to finish as the rest of the story lurches from one far-fetched scenario to another. The denouement is quickly paced but messy and somehow I felt disappointed by the sheer simplicity and sloppily procedural nature of the whole thing. Adequate, but not a patch on the Harrison Ford outings.