Tom Clancy's Without Remorse (Amazon Prime) Movie Review & Comments

I thought this was ok, first half probably better than the second.

decent audio for a streamed film, although not sure if that is my recent lumagen upgrade or not, every streamed film since has sounded disc quality 🤔

6.5/10 for me, decent Friday night viewing.

thanks @Casimir Harlow for the review, although I thought 5 was harsh and you’ve given much higher scores for bigger duds before (*cough *cough possessor) 🤣
 
Whilst reviews are mainly subjective (that said, a turkey is a turkey) this wasn’t that bad, decent enough Friday night no brainer. 6.5/10 is about right.

I watched it via ATV and I swear it was PCM 7.1 to start. I paused it when I went for a refill and after that it was 5.1. Might have been the wine making me see things 🍷.
 
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Cas, spot on review as always (loved the thought of him having gills.
Main actor is wooden and story is all over the place (very stop start) but……

I thought the combat scenes were excellent, you always knew what was happening and to whom (by no means a given in modern cinema) and the scenes were given the thinking time to play out with characters seeming to take in a developing situation and plan around it? Am I being too generous here or should the director be in demand for 2nd unit action work in future?
 
Wine and beer certainly improved the film, but still bang average Friday night fodder. Disappointed that it bore zero resemblance to the book. It’s one of the less complex Clancy novels, and would have made a cracking adaptation rather than this name only piece. Each subpar film that gets made chips away at the world Clancy created. Ok some of the politics may be ropey, but they’re damn good reads. Wish Amazon had gone to the book rather than try to contemporise it. Some of those rumoured productions years ago could have been great....
but this take was entertaining, but not much more.
 
I don’t understand how that allows them to use the name of the book and characters, and TC’s name, but not the story. i could understand if it was the other way around.
I actually wasn’t aware of the issues either. I’ve been reading the Jack Ryan Jr novels continuously, and aware of the ongoing Rainbow Six game series, so was also surprised, someone is clearly making money somewhere.

This is the recent story that I read about it fir the first time.

 
Wish Amazon had gone to the book rather than try to contemporise it. Some of those rumoured productions years ago could have been
Actually the finished film from Paramount was purchased by Amazon for streaming, but the fact Amazon can be producing a Jack Ryan series whilst Paramount make a movie based on other characters in the books, highlights the problem.
 
We were going to watch it tonight, and “were” looking forward to it (there being a bit of a dearth of decent action films presently)......still going to watch it, but might have a few more glasses of “review improver” before watching.
Well we watched it, and quite enjoyed it really.....OK the plot got a bit disjointed and lost in places and the “model looks” of the commanding officer were slightly unbelievable for a Navy Seal (twig arms and legs never pulled a rookie out of a sticky fire fight), apart from the slightly obvious plot ending I reckon we’d give it a 6/10.
 
Actually the finished film from Paramount was purchased by Amazon for streaming, but the fact Amazon can be producing a Jack Ryan series whilst Paramount make a movie based on other characters in the books, highlights the problem.
I’d not really seen much about the production, but it’s all a mess by the sounds of it. The three coherent-ish Ryan films were all produced by Mace Neufeld iirc; they should get back to something like that and put a clear vision across for the Ryan world, rights allowing, obviously....
 
But, in line with @Casimir Harlow review, it just has nothing to do with Tom Clancy. Nothing in terms of the story or characterisations relate to the book of the title or the character. It’s truly disappointing, another wasted opportunity, for a franchise that promises better than the average. I’m not as angry about it, in terms of how Cas sees it, and what I saw was better than any Seagal or Van Damme movie I ever saw, with the exception of Under Siege.

But because the final act was a bit sub-par and uninspired I’m dropping to a 6.5 out of 10.

Absolutely. My venom towards it is in the delusions of grandeur.

Seagal and Van Damme flicks (at least in the old days) I loved, because they were the epitome of 'does what it says on the tin', they weren't in the least bit pretentious about it, you were under no illusions about what you were getting.

I found it thoroughly disingenuous that they pretended they were giving us a thoroughly engaging Clancy tale, adapted by Taylor Sheridan no less, when really basically it took the story to Hard to Kill (and I don't give it Bourne Supremacy because WR didn't have a whole film to build up the relationship) and threw a budget and some stars at it. Sure, it's a much more professional, mainstream release than anything those old action heroes did, but why they hell slap Tom Clancy's Without Remorse on it and pretend it's anything other than Jordan's Taken?
 
but why they hell slap Tom Clancy's Without Remorse on it and pretend it's anything other than Jordan's Taken?
I think it’s classic Hollywood. Without Remorse has been in development for at least a decade. I remember when Shadow Recruit came out, it was publicised that Kevin Costner would repeat his role in Without Remorse.

Someone said, lets do an action movie with this up-and-coming star, oh yeah, we have this property in development hell we have the rights for, with name/marketing recognition. But Jordan is nothing like the character, so we need to get a script that fits his sensibilities, because we want to create a quick-win new franchise.

Its a shame because I rate MBJ, he comes across as really sensible and balanced in interviews and is a real fan of comics, games, etc, and really plays the Rainbiw Six games, shame he couldn’t influence this production more, but we’ll get to see soon how he fares as a creative, as a Producer on Static Shock and directing Creed III.
 
Another sucking bullet wound of an outing.
 
Gonna give this a whirl tonight. I'd rather not now to be honest, but I'm compelled to nevertheless.
 
Finished it earlier. Totally forgetable. Can’t remember half of it already.

Agree with Cas’s 5/10. Might have done better without the Tom Clancy connection as you’d expect better.

Miles worse than anything Jack Ryan, save for possibly Shadow Recruit but that was naff too.
 
6/10 for me, not as terrible as some are saying but nothing special either.

That rolling flashlight scene honestly blew my mind with how clever it was, practical lighting, drawing attention and revealing information all at once. So good.

That and the underwater air pocket shot were the standout moments to me.

Otherwise a fairly solid action film I thought. My biggest complaint is the usual whisper, whisper, EXPLOSION.

4K/HDR was quite nice.
 
Just finished it.

It was..... fine, if forgettable. Not one to be rewatched. Poorly written characters, bad dialogue, decent action.

Ultimately, a waste of the book title which I'm off to bed shortly to start reading.... again.
 
Well I lasted about an hour and then it went off in a rage. This is actually well below Michael B Jordan as well.

Don't need to put this bit in spoiler tags, but the bit on the plane when he was messing with Greer's ear and then throws the bit of paper at her. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!!

That was enough for me before something got smashed. At this point I can only conclude Cas must have been paid off handsomely giving it a 5 :)

I will finish it to see how it ends, but at the moment it's in Jesus Rolls territory.
 
Perfectly adequate, thinly drawn 80’s style actioner. I’m not familiar Clancy’s books and I’m sure that helps.
Jordan elevates it to a watchable level. It’s all very generically predictable (disappointing considering Sheridan‘s involvement), but the action sequences are solidly put together and it gets an extra half mark for Jonsi’s atmospheric score.
6.5
 
This movie was on my preferred viewing list for a while, it didn't bother me that it was going to be full of pulp fiction and rehashed cold war themes, I just miss the well made action movie without too many sub plot distractions and Tom Clancy's Without Remorse is for the best part traditional action noir in concept but it may have been made differently without the German movie industry input.
Watching the movie progress you didn't have to wait for the closing credits and all those personal assistants that Mr. Jordan was provided with to see that this was intended as a star status product for Michael B. Jordan who had a universal soldier look with his almost superhuman capacity to endure adversity, an important requirement for any action movie hero, even though most of these action sequences were first successfully exploited by Bruce Willis in his Die Hard films.
There is some unfortunate casting with Jamie Bell looking a bit out of place as a CIA agent, Michael really needed a larger guy to face up to but perhaps that was intentional, and Guy Pearce keeps popping up everywhere nowadays.
I'm not sure why there was a need to have Jodie Turner-Smith as Lt.Cdr Karen Greer she is far too fragile looking for a special operations soldier, it plainly looks like a PC inclusion or sexual tension interest for Jordan, in what should have been a masculine film, that is what a Tom Clancy story is all about in my opinion.
The pace of the story is pretty loose like reading a comic book so picking the real bad guy is not too difficult, once again the real power of super power politics is kept hidden while the action players rule the screen, when the film finally ends the word 'franchise' comes to mind.
I enjoyed watching this film even though i had a bad dose of non COVID flu (I got COVID tested), perhaps that helped as well.
I will give this film 7 out of 10 for the overall production.
 
Expectations can be deadly when watching something like this but I was very disappointed with it even more so when I found that Taylor Sheridan was involved.
The action movie bar has been raised quite high these past few years, Wick trilogy, Extraction, Nobody, all great examples of pictures without much of a plot to them.

This though was just dull with an incomprehensible story that looked like it was told on the fly.
The final summing up being that they can’t have Americans fighting each other anymore, they just need to have their attentions focussed and diverted on a war.
It’s just plain dumb and I’m no fan of the majority of action sequences being filmed in the dark.
For a potential franchise it’s poor fayre and I enjoyed the Jack Ryan series on Prime so much more.

I think Cas score is a fair one, certainly more so than mine. Think I’ll be back to iplayer and catch up on some classics like the third man, there’s so many decent movies about that this one felt like a waste of time and a colossal missed opportunity.
 
I realised there would be problems when the special forces helicopter at the start leaves the area with flashing lights on it. Clearly attention to detail was lacking. Which led into the plot, that was stupidly unoriginal and you could see how it would play out within 10minutes, the whole story has been done to death over the years. On top of that the actress playing greer wasn't believable at all as a senior special forces operator and defintely not as an officer.

Some rays of potential, but overall ruined a good book and character. The post credit scene gives some hope but i doubt it will play out.

Overall i agree with the 5/10.
 
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The post credit scene


Didn't hang around long enough to check that out.... cheers.

EDIT.

So the post credits scene is setting up Rainbow 6. Which of course will bear little resemblance to the excellent book.
I guess Clarke/Kelly didn't need all that experience he got working black ops/as a spy in all the corners of the world for years in this "lite" version.
So much potential wasted.
 
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Well after SWMBO made me sit through Nomadland last night which I will add I would have had more fun giving myself a Colonoscopy.
This was a solid 7/10 for me. I really enjoyed it. And it just confirmed what a fantastic actor and action star Michael B Jordan is even with a weak script and by the numbers action film.
 
I actually quite enjoyed it put me down for a solid 6 out of 10 my only real disappointment was
Guy Pearce turning out to be a wrong un yet again but otherwise tidy as we say in Wales
 
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