Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven
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| Sunny Days in Heaven Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven |
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Monday, June 03, 2002 The Sum of All Fears - Proves to be true. All my fears about this movie were realized. It's terrible. As a way of avoiding the seventh Laker-Kings game yesterday, I went to the movies. I'd read Clancy's book years ago, then heard how they'd changed the story and feared they ruined it. Then a local reviewer gave it high marks. Tom Clancy was listed as an Executive Producer (a job description I've never heard explained. Get a title and pocket a bunch of money for doing nothing?). Well, Tom watched his story castrated, gutted, and made ludicrous. I won't give details of plot away except to say it makes no sense. I don't recall the original story very well except that Arab terorists get their hands on a lost Israeli A-bomb and get it into this country and explode it. All I recall is the race to catch up to it before it goes off - ohh, too late; so sad. In this movie, the leaders are idiots and surrounded by idiots who all shout bomb them! bomb them now! Although Ryan (terribly played by Affleck in that he's not believable as a former marine, Phd. in history, or very intelligent seeming) has crucial information, which he got from one government agency, and relayed it to the CIA, but no one seems to be able to inform the President (or notices) that they have solid facts for him to base decisions on. The very moment he needs the best communications, he goes incommunicado in rage. No one can reach him with any facts of the bombing (except our hero eventually in the most absurd way). The explosion of the A-bomb is way cool and believably frightening (echoes of 9/11 give it power), but we see little of the actual destruction or loss of life (and at the end of the movie it's all a picnic on the White House lawn as if Baltimore, a mere few miles away, were not in smoldering ruins). A Russian commander, bought and paid for, sends off a fighter wing to attack with no one in higher command noticing. Lots of things like that occur. This is an incredibly stupid movie which makes no sense in the least as plot. Granted that any contemporary thriller has to contain some improbabilities to launch a plot, but this is not a launch but an abortion. It's bad, bad, bad. posted by Mark Butterworth | 8:01 PM | |
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