The Jack Ryan Special Edition DVD Collection

Hunt for Red October (****): Definitely an excellent movie, with a strong performance by Sean Connery. The Jack Ryan of this movie is a little uninspiring, but hey, Sean Connery is the real story here. Plenty of excitement, great suspense, superb acting, so high marks all around. Sadly (or not), cutting-edge computing is not what it used to be, so the film seems terribly dated whenever some calculation is called for.

Clear and Present Danger (***)
Patriot Games (***) These both qualify as good flicks, somthing you might watch late at night if there was nothing better on. The action is so-so, but the plots are okay, so it bears watching more than once. Nice filler. Harrison Ford is just right as Jack Ryan, but Ford has a deadly shortcoming in all of his movies... he mumbles. At first I thought it was just a bad dvd, when he was in "What Lies Beneath", but every movie I see him in, he mumbles. I can't ever get the darn volume right and it drives me nuts. If you like Harrison Ford or Tom Clancy, these are worth watching.

Sum of All Fears (*): This made a new entry into my list of Movies That Should Not Be Watched By Anyone (joining such stinkers as "Anaconda" and, um, I'm thinking here). Leaving aside the alterations to Tom Clancy's story, which was half science thriller (building the nuclear bomb) and half psychological thriller (dealing with an irrational President as the world teeters on the brink of war) UNTIL the director turned it into some bizarre ego trip for a young incompetent guy whose relationship to the CIA is never explained. Again, leaving aside the alterations to the storyline, I was still profoundly unmoved by the characters themselves. Motivation, motivation, motivation! Character behaviors never seemed authentic, and no one acted in a realistic way. I feel like less of a human being for merely having watched this ... (I suppose you can figure out that I didn't like it)

My recommendation: buy "Red October", rent "Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger", give yourself a lobotomy if you've ever seen "Sum".

What a great set to own altogether. Fabulous movies and all in one set. This one is a "gotta have" ASAP.