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'Sum of All Fears' doesn't add up
Movie Rating: B-
 Morgan Freeman and Ben Affleck, seen here discussing the threat of nuclear war and the details of espionage at one of the President�s black tie affairs, star in �The Sum of All Fears.� The film is based on the novel of the same title by Tom Clancy.
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Ever since Sept. 11, my taste in movies has changed. I used to enjoy movies that in my opinion had a certain amount of depth, usually a somewhat well developed plot, with characters that had more than one dimension. But since last fall my movie repertoire has been composed of cheesy-funny, corny-romantic, predictable happy ending flicks most people would be ashamed to admit they saw. So this weekend I decided it was time to try to enter the "real world" of the reel world once more.
I have never read a Tom Clancy novel, but I have seen the movies "Hunt for Red October," "Clear and Present Danger" and "Patriot Games" so I thought it just might be possible to ease myself back into the adventure/thriller genre with "The Sum of All Fears" if for no other reason than I would get to see Morgan Freeman, who lets face it, always rocks, and Liev Schrieber, whose performance I thoroughly enjoyed in "Kate and Leopold," a movie from the cheesy-funny, corny-romantic, predictable happy ending genre.
While not altogether a terrible movie, I did have some problems with "The Sum of All Fears."
The first obstacle for me in the audience was getting past the fact that the main character, Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck) is the same man who was previously played by Harrison Ford, and two movies later is 30 years younger. While Clancy, executive producer on the film, gave the green light to this change, it was a bit disconcerting to me.
The technical effects on the film were really amazing, especially when the bomb explodes.
The biggest problem came after a huge explosion. First the imagery was hard to swallow after the 9/11 incident. The next problem was the reality factor: in reality this bomb would have killed tens of thousands of people and poisoned a lot more but does little damage in the movie.
But what was the absolute worst part of all, was the way the survivors behaved. As if nothing happened. As if it wasn't really that bad. After what are presumably a few weeks later, if that, Ryan and his girlfriend are relaxing on the lawn outside of the White House and its as though nothing happened.
In movies there is a contract between the moviemakers and the audience called "suspended disbelief." "Suspended disbelief" is how much the audience is willing to believe and what the audience has to believe in order for the movie to progress. For example, in the Superman movies, the "suspended disbelief" is the audience's willingness to believe that a man can fly or that a green rock can kill him. The thing about "suspended disbelief" is that its hard to get people to "suspend" their beliefs about some things, especially those that are time sensitive or historical fictions. To subject an audience to a bombing on American soil after what happened on 9/11 and expect everyone in the theater to just believe that life continues on in a typical fashion after something so tragic happens is something most people in the audience won't believe.
This was a big flaw for me.
As far as acting, Morgan Freeman gave his usual top notch performance as William Cabot, but this is no surprise because by now Morgan Freeman has played the role of a "smart, humble, no-nonsense mentor" character more times than I can count.
While not a big Ben Affleck fan, in my opinion his performance in this film was the best since "Dogma."
Liev Schrieber shined as John Clark, and his scenes were the most exciting, with a very James Bond flavor.
Overall, not a bad flick, but I think I might stick to the cheesy-funny, corny-romantic, predictable happy ending flicks for a little while longer before trying to ease myself back into the "reel world."
Ben Affleck fans will love this flick because I don't think there is a shot without him.
Directed by Phil Alden Robinson, "The Sum of All Fears" is currently playing at Parkwood 18.
On the movie rating chart this flick scores a B- if for no other reason than the fact my sister fell asleep through most of it in the chair beside me.
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