The Sum Of All Fears

Directed by Phil Alden Robinson

Starring Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, James Cromwell, Liev Schreiber and Alan Bates

Rated PG-13 for violence, disaster images and brief strong language

Thanks to the ineptness of our national security agencies, terrorism is now an issue that is fully on the minds of the American people. And so to capitalize on the panic of Americans everywhere, Paramount Pictures snapped up the rights to the Tom Clancy novel of the same title as the movie to try to make some money off of these panicked fools. And based on the box office numbers from last weekend when the film opened, they have been quite successful in their endeavor. But this is certainly not to say that the film was successful as a real film. In trying to make a poignant film about terrorism, Robinson and company have just made a weak film that proves how inept the national security agencies truly are.

Phil Alden Robinson has in the past brought us such feel good flicks as Field of Dreams and Sneakers (which while about spying and bad stuff is still a fun movie), but this time clearly he had a different kind of story to work with. And it didn’t work out for Robinson nearly as well this time as it did for him in the above mentioned films. The first half of the film is okay. Robinson doesn’t do anything overly impressive, but like Sam Raimi in Spiderman he doesn’t do anything that would really hurt the film either. But then suddenly the film morphs into a Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer movie.

Like his Good Will Hunting pal, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck is trying to be an action star. I don't buy it for either of them

If you have ever seen Bay’s Armageddon then maybe you will remember the way Bay manages to light everything in bizarre greens and blues and keep the camera right in the faces of all the actors. Well if you don’t remember this then you will see it again in this film. And the obligatory action hero scene in which Affleck runs in slow motion with fire behind him is amazingly bad, but does score very high on the unintentional humor scale. The worst part of the film is the major change that they make from the book, that being making the villains of the story Neo-Nazi Fascists instead of Islamic militants like they were in the book. The reason I heard for why they changed the villains was because Islamic advocacy groups lobbied for them to change it, which is understandable since currently there are a lot more people today in America who aren’t big fans of Arabs. But at least there really are Islamic Militants who don’t like the United States. There really aren’t any Neo-Nazi Fascist groups sitting around trying to figure out how to destroy the world. Its really just a ridiculous fantasy villain that seems more appropriate for a film set in the aftermath of World War II rather than in 2002. Clearly the Neo-Nazi Fascists need a new PR guy to help prevent this kind of change from happening again.

The acting in this film is rather mediocre. Nobody gives a performance like that of Chris Klein in Rollerball, but they certainly don’t impress you. Affleck, who plays a young Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan, proved that his surprising performance in Changing Lanes really was a fluke. Meanwhile, Cromwell is the worst President I have ever seen in film and television. George Bush is still worse, but it certainly makes me long for the days of Bill Clinton.

"Hey Ben, wouldn't it have made more sense if the villains in this film were aliens instead of Neo-Nazi fascists?"

When you consider that Cromwell doesn’t exactly know how to handle a crisis, it really makes you worried that Bush is the guy we have now in case of another crisis. Freeman and Schreiber certainly give the best performances of the film, but in a movie this bad that really isn’t saying much. Plus, neither are in the film a long time. This picture is all Affleck all the time and he runs the thing into the ground.

I frankly am getting really sick of all the talk and worries about terrorism. I’ve had enough of our ultra-patriotism and having to sing God Bless America instead of Take Me Out To The Ballgame during the 7th inning stretch. And this movie certainly doesn’t make me think any differently. It certainly doesn’t calm my fears about the threat of terrorism, nor could it calm anyone’s. And to top it off this is just a bad film. Everything about it is poor from the acting to the directing. It is just another example of taking advantage of the September 11th attacks to make some cash like all those people who sold small American flags and God Bless America bumper stickers on September 12th. So don’t waste your time with this film. If you want to really be a good citizen go to a baseball game instead.

RATING: 30%