Harrison Ford

Jack Ryan Ultimate Movie Collection

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  • Title: The Hunt for Red October / Patriot Games / Clear and Present Danger / The Sum of All Fears / Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
  • IMDb: link | link | link | link | link

Jack Ryan 5-Film Collection

All five feature-length Jack Ryan movies are collected featuring the heroic actions of Tom Clancy’s thinking man’s hero, a CIA analyst turned action star, saving the world. The best of the bunch remains the first. The Hunt for Red October stars Alec Baldwin as the only man who correctly guesses the true intentions of a Soviet captain (Sean Connery) stealing an untrackable nuclear submarine with plans to defect. Not only is it the best story of this collection but director John McTiernan ratches up the tension to great effect making the most of both his stars.

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Grumpy Indiana Jones and the Melancholy Journey Through Time

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  • Title: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
  • IMDb: link

Your impressions on Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will largely be determined by your threshold for how far an Indiana Jones film can go before nuking the fridge (so to speak). The Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail? Great. Sacred glowing stones? Weird, but sure, okay. But jumping into the realm of aliens or time travel through clocks is, for me, a bridge too far as the latest entry to the franchise ultimately feels as much as a successor to Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider as Raiders of the Lost Ark.

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The Call of the Wild

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Call of the Wild
  • IMDb: link

The Call of the Wild movie reviewThe Call of the Wild, adapted from the Jack London novel of the same name, follows the journey of a St. Bernard/Scotch Collie named Buck who ends up in the Yukon as a sled dog after being stolen from his owner (Bradley Whitford) and sold north. The CGI-enhanced mutt is the main character of the film, while making friends (Harrison Ford, Omar Sy, Cara Gee) and enemies (Dan Stevens) along the way with both men and dogs. CGI is used on Buck to enhance the pooch’s emotions. The effect works in most cases, but there are scenes where it does feel a little disturbing.

Adapted by screenwriter Michael Green (Blade Runner 2049, Green Lantern), the straightforward tale of a heroic dog offers an earnest family-friendly film. I will admit I found both Buck and his journey more enjoyable than I expected. Buck is easy to root while the rest of the film’s characters are mostly cast in simple terms as good, evil, or indifferent. Released by the rebranded 20th Century Studios (renamed after Disney acquired Fox), the movie will no doubt play for years on Disney+ making a suitable companion piece to something like Eight Below or any one of the various Benji films.

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Blade Runner 2049

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  • Title: Blade Runner 2049
  • IMDb: link

Blade Runner 2049 movie reviewGood news, bad news. Blade Runner 2049 isn’t as good as the original. It’s also far better than I expected from a sequel no one really ever wanted to see made. While I’d expect the initial reception to be better than the original Blade Runner, the sequel’s plot does have serious plot holes which multiple viewings are likely to further expose.

Set 30 years after the first film (coinciding with the similar gap between the original and the sequel), the world still has plenty of runaway replicants which need to be found and retired. While Deckard (Harrison Ford) has long-since disappeared, the role of our main Blade Runner this time around is played by Ryan Gosling.

Director Denis Villeneuve offers a visually interesting film with several nods to Blade Runner. While the story is more complicated than necessary, and requires characters to ignore specific questions which seem obvious to ask, K’s (Gosling) journey and the mystery he’s tasked to solve does keep things on track (even if Villeneuve gets stuck multiple times dragging out shots and scenes for the visual style long after the plot has been satisfied).

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Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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  • Title: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
  • IMDb: link

Star Wars: The Force AwakensIt is a dark time for the Rebellion (even if they aren’t called the Rebellion anymore). The rise of a military force known as the First Order, built on the wreckage of the old Empire, is making the galaxy a very dangerous place for everyone’s favorite galactic heroes in a galaxy far, far away.

After waiting 32 years to see Luke Skywalker‘s (Mark Hamill) name appear in a Star Wars crawl the wait is finally over. Since 1983 we’ve gotten several different Star Wars cartoons, three (much maligned) prequels, an endless steam of merchandise, countless comic books and novels, and the sell of the franchise by George Lucas to Disney. The Force Awakens marks the first big project not overseen by Lucas with a storyline that diverges largely from the Star Wars Expanded Universe while playing on similar themes longtime fans are sure to recognize. Returning to what made the original trilogy so successful, director J.J. Abrams offers us a practical lived-in galaxy strewn with the wreckage of the Empire’s epic battles with the Rebellion.

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