Saw The Sum of All Fears (thanks, Basil!) It was a Tom Clancy action-thriller. I don't know how, but his films always seem to get the triple-A treatment. The directors are not the same (take that, auteur theory!) Donald Steward wrote the screenplays of the original trilogy, so I guess that's it. Anyway, mechanics aside, this film is tremendous fun. It starts off as West Wing-style fan-fiction of the grim, dignified American government. People briskly march around, meeting in super-cool, floor-lit secret meetings. There's international tensions and secret cabals and all of the best things.
Although this is indeed an action film, it only really crystallizes into a 24-esque grim-faced shout-fest near the end. I suppose I can't fault it for doing so however. The script motivates the action sufficiently and, jaded though I may be, the dumbest tricks often work best (they don't, thank god, resort to one-liners. I hate one-liners.) At one point a bomb goes off and the sheer spectacle of it is astounding. For the majority of the film, it feels like an intimate, downright educational look into the American intelligence community. It's extremely fun and interesting. You're left (I was left) childishly thinking and talking in snappy, efficient quips. Addictive.
So I liked it! It overwhelmed my analysis-engines and I'm left with very little to say (except good show!)
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