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The Sum of All Fears
(May 2002)

The latest Tom Clancey novel to it make to the big screen stars Ben Affleck taking over the role of Jack Ryan. Sum of All Fears is supposedly a prequel to the other three Ryan movies, but it takes place in time after they do. Confused yet? So was I.

The movie forces you to stretch your imagination a bit in the beginning as we are introduced to Jack Ryan, the historian/government clerk. He gets drawn into the action after it is discovered that he wrote a paper on the newly-elected Russian president Nemerov, who everybody else is clueless about. Really, I'm not making this stuff up.

The rest of the movie is more interesting and fast-paced. Ryan retraces the path of a nuclear warhead from its discovery in the Middle East to its final resting place inside a vending machine in a Baltimore stadium. After the bomb detonates, Ryan has to rush around to gather evidence of an insidious plot to bring about war between the US and Russia, who are a button push away from bombing each other off the face of the planet.

Sum of All Fears is more of an ensemble movie than the previous ones. Morgan Freeman and Liev Schreiber do a fine job in their respective roles, while James Cromwell and Bridget Moynahan could have been replaced by cardboard cutouts and no one would have noticed.

Rating: PG-13 for some violence.