Last week, AARP launched their new “Movies for Grownups® Seal.” What does that stamp-of-approval mean? That AARP recognizes stamped films as having special appeal to 50+ audience members. The first film to receive the seal is Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions’ Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, starring Chris Pine, Keira Knightly, Kevin Coster and Kenneth Branagh, who also directed the film.
To receive AARP’s new Movies for Grownups Seal, a film must be selected by AARP’s Movies for Grownups editorial team, which dedicates hundreds of hours each year to screening eligible blockbusters and independent films, identifying movies with a distinct relevance to the 50+ audience.
Why am I telling you this? Because I loved Jack Ryan. I’m nowhere near 50 and I’m telling you that you don’t have to be 50 to enjoy it. There aren’t many movies that can grab ahold of both young and old demographics, but Shadow Recruit is one of them. I’m disappointed in low box office debut of Jack Ryan and think that positive word-of-mouth can save it. I know dozens of people who have seen it and, aside from a pair of picky critics, they’ve all enjoyed it. My wish is that positive word will boost it so that we can get a sequel in the near future. Thrillers with solid writing, directing, acting and action are hard to come by; Shadow Recruit is definitely franchise-worthy material.
If you’re unfamiliar with the plot, based on the CIA analyst created by the late espionage master Tom Clancy, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a blistering action thriller that follows Ryan (Chris Pine, Star Trek) from his quiet double-life as a veteran-turned-Wall Street executive to his all-out initiation as a hunted American agent on the trail of a massive terrorist plot in Moscow.
Ryan appears to be just another New York executive to his friends and loved ones, but his enlistment into the CIA secretly goes back years. He was brought in as a brainy Ph.D. who crunches global data – but when Ryan ferrets out a meticulously planned scheme to collapse the U.S. economy and spark global chaos, he becomes the only man with the skills to stop it. Now, he’s gone fully operational, thrust into a world of mounting suspicion, deception and deadly force. Caught between his tight-lipped handler Harper (Kevin Costner), his in-the-dark fiancée Cathy (Keira Knightley) and a brilliant Russian oligarch (Kenneth Branagh), Jack must confront a new reality where no one can seem to be trusted, yet the fate of millions rests on his finding the truth. With the urgency of a lit fuse, he’s in a race to stay one step ahead of everyone around him.
