Ben Affleck as Jack Ryan? Honestly, I never would have thought this movie would have worked. Sure, they changed the story so that it’s not a militant Arab group that gets the fission bomb (it’s now a neo-Nazi group), and it’s no longer Denver that gets nuked – it’s Baltimore. And yeah, making Jack Ryan in his late 20’s is a bit of a stretch, but you know what? It all worked. And it was a pretty engaging film. I was never bored, and I found the way they presented the nuclear strike to be tasteful.
Musically, this is one of Goldsmith’s best scores in a while – the main title sequence is great, and his new song kicks butt. I also found the use of silence to be admirable – I’m personally getting tired of movies with wall-to-wall music. This is definitely a movie to see, and a soundtrack to buy.