I like Chris Pine as Captain Kirk.
I like Chris Pine as a Tremor Brother.
I like Chris Pine as the son of irritated winemaker Bill Pullman.
I like Chris Pine as a Carrier.
I like crisp pine hanging from my rearview making the world fresh.
BUT, I do not like Chris Pine as Jack Ryan. I don’t know why.
Regardless, he’s apparently lining up to take the proud mantle occupied by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Ben Affleck as Tom Clancy’s CIA analyst in yet another goddamn reboot of the franchise even though the last one did a very respectable 170+ million worldwide. Pine’s young, fresh, and about two years from being ubiquitous enough to wear audiences out. Apparently, Paramount loves the guy because they’re officially in the Chris Pine business. In the parlance of the trades, he’s ‘circling’ the project. Like a starving raptor. Paramount thinks Mr. Pine’s a thoroughbred they want to ride around town. Without a saddle. Hot shit.
I mean, look what his Star Trek success did for Carriers‘ [actually a good little flick] box office.
Oh.
I understand that they want to skew young and Ben Affleck isn’t the hottest young stud anymore. Or maybe he didn’t want to do it. I also understand that they’re doing a brand new story and not an adaptation of a previous Clancy novel [good]. But it’s too early for Chris Pine to have two giant franchises [three if you count the upcoming Bottle Shock prequels they’re shooting back-to-back-to-back in New Zealand] wrapped around his closely cropped and chiseled head. He’s good but he hasn’t endured long enough to wear the proverbial crown yet.
As a huge Clancy fan and someone who has found stuff to love in all four adaptations [Red October is still the best by a wide margin], I would love to see it endure… but not with baby Jack. Affleck was too young, or at least his youth didn’t carry the same weight as Baldwin’s. Pine, as good as he is, makes Affleck’s Jack Ryan seem like an elder statesman.
I’m proven wrong a lot, but here’s hoping this one is more hot air than concrete fact.
I’ll be honest, part of the reason I’m pissed is because I’m dying to see Liev Schreiber reprise his John Clark in either Without Remorse or Rainbow Six or something of the like because he was just so magnetic in the role.