| | | 27,000 Nuclear Weapons. One is Missing.
Paramount Sum Of All Fears (Blu-ray)Ben Affleck is readyfor action, commanding the role of CIA agent JackRyan in this thrilling adventure based on the TomClancy bestseller. America's Cold War fears are rekindled after the President of Russia dies and issucceeded by a man with a cryptic past. But East-West tensions erupt when the CIA suspects that renegade Russian scientists are developing more nuclear weapons. Mobilized into action by CIA Director William Cabot (Morgan Freeman), Jack Ryan (Affleck) follows a danger-ridden trail to a shocking conclusion: terrorists plan to provoke a war between the U.S. and Russia - by detonating a nuclear bomb at a championship football game! Costarring James Cromwell and Liev Schreiber, "The Sum of All Fears" adds up to the year's most explosive entertainment.
"Smartly directed, grown-up film of ideas -- with a debonair script by Paul Attanasio (Donny Brasco) and Daniel Pyne." Ella Taylor, LA Weekly
"...deftly reinvents the Tom Clancy series..." Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Daily News
"Smart, complex, and engrossing idea-driven action thriller." Michael Dequina, Film Threat
"You'll find yourself totally caught up in this exhilarating adventure." Paul Clinton, CNN
"Impossible to watch passively...it is perfectly, thoroughly chilling." Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
"...a well made and satisfying thriller..." Scott Weinberg, eFilmCritic.com
"The tension is so plausibly high that you're eager to see how it winds up." Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian
Editor's Note
In this high-intensity drama, based on the novel by Tom Clancy, Ben Affleck stars as Jack Ryan, the CIA agent from Clancy's THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, PATRIOT GAMES, and CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER. Here, Ryan is dealing with a terrifying new problem: a nuclear weapon has fallen into the hands of foreign terrorists who are determined to create a war between Russia and the U.S. As the film begins, a South African arms dealer (Colm Feore) acquires a long-lost nuclear weapon and sells it, at great profit, to a resurgent group of fascists led by Dressler (Alan Bates), who plans to lure the U.S. and Russia into a war. Soon after, the Russian premiere dies and the relatively unknown Nemerov (Ciarán Hinds) replaces him. But U.S. president Fowler (James Cromwell) smells a rat, and calls CIA chief William Cabot (Morgan Freeman) and special agent Jack Ryan (Affleck), the junior analyst who has been researching Nemerov, into action. THE SUM OF ALL FEARS is a powerful addition to Tom Clancy's techno-thriller series. Affleck is effective, and there are notable supporting performances from Freeman, Cromwell, Feore, Hinds, Bates, and Liev Schreiber as a CIA operative. Director Phil Alden Robinson manages the action with great skill. Particularly notable are the terrifying nuclear attack and the sequence of final reckonings intercut with Puccini's beautiful aria "Nessun Dorma."
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1 Surround Sound | | Audio: French, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Dubbed: French, Spanish | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese | | This Is A Blu-Ray DVD Made For Blue-Laser Format Players Which Produce Higher Quality Picture & Sound |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Paramount |
| Release Date: 7/29/2008 |
| Original Release Date: 2002 | | Catalog ID: 137648 | | UPC: 00097361376486 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"...The first two-thirds of the film skillfully sets up its dramatic dominoes....And the glossy catalog of aircraft and missiles being primed for action makes for an impressively chilly display of hardware..." 05/31/2002 p.E1Los Angeles Times
"...THE SUM OF ALL FEARS could hardly be more timely or frightening....Affleck has the intelligence and athleticism to carry off the singularly unpretentious and fiercely diligent hero..." 05/31/2002 p.C1 Entertainment Weekly
"...Freeman always manages to do something new....He and Affleck demonstrate a seasoned team's nimbly cutting spontaneity..." 06/07/2002 p.43-4 Variety
"...Solid, quality summer entertainment....Few Hollywood spy thrillers have been more handsome than this one..." 05/27/2002 p.21-32 Hollywood Reporter
"...Vigorously directed....Tautly scripted....The production values are first-class..." 05/28/2002 p.8-43 ReelViews 8 of 10
Trying to fit The Sum of All Fears into the Jack Ryan timeline is going to cause continuity buffs a nightmare. From all appearances, this is a prequel to the other Ryan films (The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger) - after all, our hero is younger, just starting out at the CIA, and still dating the woman he was married to in the other movies. But, from a global perspective, things are out of synch. The other three Ryan movies were clearly established in the '90s; The Sum of All Fears is firmly set in 2002. So what's going on here? A time warp, perhaps, or an alternate universe. The best approach is not to think about this stuff too hard. The movie stands up well enough on its own...Because of 9/11, The Sum of All Fears is more demanding than the usual escapist summer fare. The echoes of reality in its plot points make suspension of disbelief a facile thing, but therein lies a double-edged blade. Will viewers be able to abandon themselves to the rhythms of the story and the horrors contained therein without the steady presence of Harrison Ford to shepherd them forward? The movie does what all good thrillers should do - provide enough shocks and surprises to keep us guessing, and never lets up on the suspense until the end credits arrive. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
Oh, for the innocent days when a movie like "The Sum of All Fears" could be enjoyed as a "thriller." In these dark times, it is not a thriller but a confirmer, confirming our fears that the world is headed for disaster. The film is about the detonation of a nuclear device in an American city. No less an authority than Warren Buffet recently gave a speech in which he flatly stated that such an event was "inevitable"...The movie is based on another of Clancy's fearfully factual stories about Jack Ryan, the CIA agent, this time a good deal younger than Harrison Ford's Ryan in "A Clear and Present Danger" and played by Ben Affleck. It follows the ancient convention in which the hero goes everywhere important and personally performs most of the crucial actions, but it feels less contrived because Clancy has expertise about warfare and national security issues; the plot is a device to get us from one packet of information to another...Director Phil Alden Robinson and his writers, Paul Attanasio and Daniel Pyne, do a spellbinding job of cranking up the tension, they create a portrait of convincing realism, and then they add the other stuff because, well, if anybody ever makes a movie like this without the obligatory Hollywood softeners, audiences might flee the theater in despair. My own fear is that in the post-apocalyptic future, "The Sum of All Fears" will be seen as touchingly optimistic. - Roger Ebert
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