The Sum Of All Fears

By EWAN McDONALD

(Herald rating: * * * )

America's ultimate master spy has some distance to go to catch up with Britain's — there have been five James Bonds and 20 movies about 007 but No 2 is trying harder. This is the fourth movie featuring Tom Clancy's heroic CIA agent, Jack Ryan (after The Hunt For Red October, Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games) and we're already on to our third Ryan. Ben Affleck follows Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford: two screen heavyweights, now a comparative lightweight.

It's a complex plot and in the manner of the first three you don't really need to be bothered with the details. An Israeli plane crashed in 1973, the good guys have found there was a nuclear bomb on board (does that constitute a material breach?) three top Russian scientists have disappeared, and the former Cold War enemy is in upheaval following the appointment of a new President, Nemerov (Ciaran Hinds).

Naturally, Ryan has a close knowledge and deep understanding of Nemerov, so his devious CIA boss, Cabot (Morgan Freeman), takes him along to the White House to discuss Nemerov with the US President, Fowler (James Cromwell).

Like Bond, but without such a good suit, car, watch or taste in cocktails, Ryan becomes involved in frightfully tricky geopolitics: Nemerov will be allowed to assert his authority while his country threatens to fall apart and a really, really bad guy, Dressler (Alan Bates), hatches a cunning plan. In his spare moments when he is not saving the world Ryan must not neglect his new girlfriend (Bridget Moynihan).

Lotsa action sequences, exotic locations, holes in the plot and gung-ho flag-waving about, well, not much really. The surprise may be that after September 11, this is a movie from a major studio that actually includes a terrorist attack on America. And you thought Hollywood had forgotten.

DVD features: movie (123min); commentaries with director Phil Alden Robinson and director of photography John Lindley, with Robinson and Tom Clancy; Making of ... ; Visual Effects feature; trailer.