New Cold War unofficially started in 2014, but it could be argued that it was brewing much earlier and that at least someone in the West have been preparing for it. Such conclusion could be made after watching Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, spy thriller which had been in production years before the events in Ukraine that had served as a trigger for new global conflict. The film is based on the novels by Tom Clancy and it represents a second reboot of the series about CIA analyst Jack Ryan. In the new version he is played by Chris Pine, and the plot serves as his origin story, also dealing with a sinister conspiracy of evil Russian nationalistic Kremlin-connected oligarch Victor Cherevin (played by Kenneth Branagh). Script by Adam Cozad and David Koepp portrays Russia and Russians as the mortal enemy of America and Free World with the lack of subtlety unusual even for the most chauvinistic and paranoid films during the first Cold War; all Russian characters are villains and even the Russian Americans are fifth column willing to commit terrorist atrocities dwarfing 9-11. If we ignore cheap propaganda, Shadow Recruit features few decent action scenes, but Branagh as director is not a match for proper action directors, just as Chris Pine as Jack Ryan lacks charisma of his predecessors like Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck.
RATING: 4/10