movies
‘Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War’ Review: John Krasinski Stars
Did you know that Dubai is one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world? It’s but one of many less than revelatory facts strewn throughout Amazon Prime Video’s Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War, a film whose full title will only be mentioned once in this review. John Krasinski reprises the role he played for four years in the series and which has been played on the big screen by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine (bet you forgot that last one). Now that he’s back, it’s a safe bet that there will be more cinematic entries in the future, although things are off to an unpromising start.
How unpromising is evident right from the beginning, when Ryan, retired from the CIA and now working on Wall Street as a hedge fund analyst, is jogging through the streets of lower Manhattan and becomes alarmed when he realizes he’s being shadowed by two black vans. A frantic chase ensues, with him ducking in and out of a restaurant and bookstore in an attempt to evade the apparent bad guys. When he’s finally cornered, he’s surprised to learn that it’s actually his former CIA boss, James Greer (Wendell Pierce, returning from the series), who wants to recruit him for a freelance assignment
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War
The Bottom Line
Never let a successful franchise go to waste.
Release date: Wednesday, May 20 (Amazon Prime Video)
Cast: John Krasinski, Wendell Pierce, Michael Kelly, Max Beesley, JJ Feild, Douglas Hodge, Betty Gabriel, Sienna Miller
Director: Andrew Bernstein
Screenwriters: Aaron Rabin, John Krasinski
Rated R,
1 hour 45 minutes
When Ryan suggests that a simple phone call would have been easier, Greer replies, “Where’s the fun in that?” What he doesn’t mention is that it also provides the opportunity for a suspenseful opening scene, albeit one that thoroughly cheats the viewer.
Said assignment involves Jack going to Dubai, accompanied by fellow agent Mike November (Michael Kelly, another series veteran), and picking up a vitally important package from a former M16 operative (Douglas Hodge, sadly not around for too long). It seems like something any experienced CIA agent could handle, but few others headline a successful film and television franchise.
Needless to say, things don’t go as planned, and Jack finds himself in a simultaneously complex and simplistic conspiracy storyline involving another former MI6 agent, Liam Crown (Max Beesley, who, besides his numerous acting credits, has a successful career as a musician). It turns out that Crown was previously involved with Greer in Project Starling, a secret black-ops program that was shut down. Now Crown’s gone rogue, and it’s up to Ryan to stop him, with the help of tough, chain-smoking British agent Emma Marlowe (Sienna Miller). By the time a plan to blow up Tower Bridge has been revealed, most viewers will have abandoned keeping track of the plot.
As with so many espionage films, Jack Ryan: Ghost War revels in setting the action in familiar locations. Besides the foot chase in Manhattan, there’s a speedboat chase in Dubai and a car chase through the crowded streets of London. A key scene involving a tense meeting among the major characters takes place in the middle of Trafalgar Square, because how else do you justify that travel budget?
Krasinski executive produced and co-wrote the screenplay but doesn’t seem to have been very interested in character development or meaningful dialogue, unless you count a frustrated Greer bellowing “You and your goddamn moral compass!” to Ryan when things get heated. There’s also loads of exposition, with the characters patiently explaining what’s happening to each other so that viewers scrolling through their phones at home will be able to keep up.
Krasinski is, as always, an affable, engaging screen presence and is physically convincing going through the action paces (Ryan was originally conceived as a more cerebral figure, but he certainly hasn’t been played onscreen that way). But he’s also more than a bit bland, failing to anchor the proceedings in sufficiently compelling manner. For someone whose character’s name is so prominently featured in the title, he tends to fade into the background. That may work for a spy in real life, but in the movies it’s a detriment.
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movies
DOJ Argues CNN & Other Outlets Can Be Banned From White House
The Justice Department argued that Donald Trump can legally ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House because he determined that they didn’t meet the “minimum requirements of professionalism.”
Last month, a federal judge granted the three outlets a temporary restraining order that forced the White House to reinstate dozens of their reporters’ hard passes. The outlets are now asking the judge to extend that 14-day order for a longer term via a preliminary injunction, claiming that Trump’s ban is a violation of their First and Fifth amendment rights.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, has said that he is bound by the precedent set in In a 1977 D.C. Circuit opinion, Sherrill vs. Knight, in which the judges ruled that “the protection afforded newsgathering under the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press requires that this access not be denied arbitrarily or for less than compelling reasons.”
In a court filing on Friday, the DOJ claimed that the Sherrill case still would allow for the president to restrict the three outlets from accessing the White House grounds because the White House has a “compelling interest.”
The DOJ lawyers claimed that the Sherrill decision does not “prevent the President from concluding that bona fide journalists would identify sources instead of relying on anonymous sources, commit to factual accuracy, and provide the White House an opportunity to comment, rather than ‘perform their duties in a way that … interfere[s] with the White House’s daily operations.’ …At a bare minimum, it is a significant violation of decorum to publish classified and sensitive national security information.”
The news outlets’ legal team has rejected that assertion, writing in a filing earlier this week that Trump’s “statements also make clear he implemented the ban to coerce more favorable coverage from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, and to deter other journalists and news organizations from newsgathering and reporting that the President might view as negative. And his administration has continued to retaliate against Plaintiffs even after the temporary restraining order, only underscoring that Defendants’ motive is to punish and chill journalism they dislike.”
Even as access to the White House grounds has been reinstated, the White House has continued to restrict CNN from coverage of TV pool assignments, including travel with Trump on Air Force One.
The outlets’ lawyers, led by Theodore Boutrous Jr., also noted that Trump and other White House officials “overlooked that the First Amendment protects reporting on matters affecting national security.”
Kelly has set a hearing for Thursday on the news outlets’ motion for a preliminary injunction.
In granting a TRO, Kelly concluded that the White House failed to provide due process to the news outlets.
The DOJ has pointed to letters sent to the outlets as evidence that they were given due process. But those letters were sent on Sept. 22, four days after Trump’s ban was started.
The judge also has noted that some of the objectionable stories cited by the DOJ do not have to do with national security. Kelly wrote in his order that “even the justifications provided to Plaintiffs after this case was filed are ambiguous about the true purpose of the revocations: while Defendants’ letters to Plaintiffs mention national security concerns, they purport to identify reporting that ‘threatened national security and/or spread falsehoods’ leaving open the possibility that all the stories fall into the later bucket, rather than the former.”
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movies
Zach Bryan Dons “Free Palestine” Shirt At Gillette Stadium Concert
Following Robert Kraft‘s campaign against Macklemore, Zach Bryan made a statement with his performance at Gillette Stadium.
During Friday’s stop at the Kraft-owned venue for his With Heaven on Tour, the Grammy winner stepped onto the stage with a “Free Palestine” shirt after Kraft and other venue owners pressured Ed Sheeran to drop Macklemore from his tour over his outspoken support for Palestinians.
With another performance scheduled at the Massachusetts venue on Saturday night, it remains to be seen if Kraft will pull the plug.
The show comes after Ed Sheeran was forced to cancel his Gillette Stadium shows last weekend amid a nor’easter headed for Boston, despite caving to Kraft’s demands.
Sheeran dropped Macklemore from his tour last month amid an outcry around the opener’s “Free Palestine” onstage remarks. Opting to remain publicly neutral on the issue, Sheeran subsequently released a statement saying it was the “promoter’s decision” after Kraft assembled several of the tour venues to give him an ultimatum.
Following the statement, fellow tour openers Finneas, Aaron Rowe and Lukas Graham dropped out of the tour, along with Sheeran’s backing band Beoga.
Meanwhile, Macklemore announced the Free Palestine Tour last week, which is “supporting the Palestinian people and movement,” running 10/26-10/30 in Dublin, Paris and London. He since gave an update that the tour “sold out immediately.”
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movies
Pedro Pascal Was Surprised By Tony Gilroy’s ‘Behemoth!’
With the world premiere of Behemoth!, Pedro Pascal is praising Tony Gilroy for the intimate drama.
During a Q&A after the film’s premiere screening at the New York Film Festival, the Golden Globe-nominated actor admitted he thought Gilroy was “gonna be kinda mean” before they worked together.
“You have created this complex Jason Bourne-like puzzle over something that is so intimate and so healing this mysterious way,” Pascal told Gilroy in a video shared by NYFF. “And I didn’t think it was gonna come from him, you know what I mean? This intimidating intellectual … you know, I thought you were gonna be kinda mean. And you thought I was gonna be a dork.
In Behemoth!, premiering Dec. 4 in theaters, Pascal stars as cellist Alex Serian, a former child prodigy who returns home to Los Angeles to compose film scores and reconnect with his family.
Written and directed by Gilroy, the Searchlight Pictures film also stars Olivia Wilde, Eva Victor, Will Arnett, Hank Azaria, Margarita Levieva and Matthew Lillard.
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