A suspensful, sophisticated and thrilling film that aims higher than most action movies from the 80s. In fact, it's the best of the Jack Ryan films and Sean Connery is compulsively watchable. This was the third and last of McTiernan's remarkable action films. Sadly, he never recovered from The Last Action Hero.
Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin? Count me in. This is a great film Adapted from the Tom Clancy Novel of the same name. John McTiernan Directs a very suspensful and riveting sub film. with spectacular underwater action scenes.
Surprisingly the best Jack Ryan film does not have Ford in the main characters role buy Alec Baldwin. The film is great because the story is tighter I think and doesn't fall prey to an over the top ending like the others do.
Sean Connery can't do anything but Scottish. I don't really know why they keep casting him in foreign roles. Still, he pulls this off okay as long as you excuse his scottish Russian accent.
I think the kindest way for me to review this is to say, it's a boy movie. Also, I didn't quite make it to the end. I fell asleep a couple of times and when I tried to find the last scene I had seen, I could tell which was which because all the scenes looked exactly the same. Someday I'll give it another go but I gave it an honest try and I'd sum it up in one word: blah.
This was a really well done movie. It might have taken me three years of it being suggested to me before I saw it, but when I finally did, I loved it. Sean Connery is a genius. He never fails.
Director John McTiernan has had a checkered past as a movie maker. He has made some of the best movies to come out of Hollywood in recent years (`Die Hard' and `The Thomas Crown Affair') and yet he is also the one responsible for some of the worst big budget productions (`The 13th Warrior,' `Nomads' and `The Last Action Hero'). Thankfully for fans of the Tom Clancy novel on which `The Hunt for Red October' is based, this movie falls into the first category.
Sometime in the early 1980s I was looking through novels in the local bookstore searching for that one elusive book that would make a great birthday present for my mother. I came across a work by an author I had never heard of, and a novel that sounded as if it had an interesting `Firefox-like' plot. The author was Tom Clancy and the novel was `The Hunt for Red October.'
Fast forward several years and in 1990 Paramount Pictures released the Sean Connery/Alec Baldwin starring adaptation of the novel. The movie was a triumphant success, even given its longer than usual running time and its lack of real action (most of the actual action occurs in the final moments of the film). What held the movie together, and kept the viewers rapt attention, was the simply incredible acting and presence of Sean Connery as Soviet sub captain Marko Ramius and the building suspense and tension that pervades the well structured plot.
The plot centers on the plan by Ramius to, with the help of some fellow crewmembers, to defect to the United States, taking with him the newest sub in the Russian fleet - the Red October (named after the October revolution. The Red October is capable of running silent with a new propulsion system that makes it almost invisible to sonar. The Russians launch a mission to destroy the submarine and even tell the Americans that Ramius is a rogue in an attempt to elicit their help in sinking the ship.
The one American who doesn't believe the Russian story is CIA analyst Jack Ryan (played in this movie by Alec Baldwin). Having met Ramius previously and studied him he suspects the true intention of the Soviet captain. He must convince his bosses and eventually an American sub captain (played wonderfully by Scott Glenn) to trust him and give Ramius a chance.
Taut and at times nerve wrenching (the blind timed navigating through the underwater trenches), the `Hunt for Red October' is simply one of the best techno-thrillers to come out of Hollywood in the past two decades. Sticking fairly close to the Clancy novel, McTiernan keeps building the pressure and ratcheting up of the stakes until an explosive final confrontation off the Labrador coast.
Great movie. Another epic that I could watch over and over again and never get tired of it. Connery is brilliant as the Soviet Captain. Definitely worth the watch.
The best movie adaptation of a Tom Clancy novel. Alec Baldwin's Jack Ryan is the best of the group including Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck. The scope and acting are well done as is the suspense. Great supporting roles by Sam Niell, James Earl Jones and especially Scott Glenn.
Alec Baldwin stars in my favourite portrayal of Jack Ryan. Harrison was good, and Affleck didn't actually suck, but when I think Jack Ryan I think Alec Baldwin - plus Sean's Scottish/Ukrainian accent is to die for.
If you have not seen this movie, see it immediately. If you have seen this movie, see it again. It's one of those timeless flicks that just stay in your mind. Brilliant performances all around with a truly great story from the high point of Clacy's career.
To enjoy this Movie you really have to read the book by Tom Clancy. It obviously goes into much more detail, explaining everything the movie covered with interesting facts n' figures thrown in.
But for none Books reading Fans A great action movies that can be watched over and over. Especially when you are a Connery and Baldwin and Submarine movies Fan. You ll love it.
Where has the real John McTiernan gone and can we please bring him back so he can make more great action classics like Red October, Predator, and Die Hard?!???
MCT:July 6, 2008
MCT:July 4, 2008
MCT:July 1, 2008
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MCT:May 7, 2008
