The John Kelly or John Clark character has shown up in some of
the versions of Jack Ryan stories over the years. Willem Dafoe played him in Clear and Present
Danger. Without Remorse tells the story of how he came to join the CIA. And his
continuing adventures will apparently be told in Rainbow Six, which I can only
assume is upcoming. In the meantime, you can catch this movie on Amazon Prime.
Without Remorse begins with Kelly and his team of Navy Seals
completing a mission overseas with some shady intel and less than clear
direction from CIA operative Robert Ritter.
Upon returning home, Kelly learns that his team is being eliminated one
member at a time. The killers get to his home and while they fail to take him
out completely, they do eliminate his pregnant wife. Blinded with fury and rage, and operating
without any remorse, Kelly starts taking revenge.
He ends up in prison due to setting a guy on fire in a car
but is broken out by the CIA to team up with Ritter and Karen Greer again to
head oversees and take out the threat in Russia that may or may not be causing
the issue.
The movie is directed by Stefano Sollima and the action is
certainly constant, but bewildering. Like most Clancy-based pieces, it is
military weaponry heavy with so much gunfire that I found myself completely tuning
out. That is one disadvantage to
streaming a movie at home. In the theater, even if my attention began to wane I
would still be sitting there – however, at home I can pick up my phone or
tablet and start putzing around with any little distraction. If you like other Clancy-style military
action pieces, you will like this. If not, you (like me) will find is
overbearing and unengaging.
The cast is certainly wonderful – Michael B. Jordan is
fantastic as Kelly and once he loses everything you completely believe that he
will do whatever it takes to get revenge, even if it means losing himself along
the way.
Jodie Turner-Smith is perfectly still as Karen Greer and it
was interesting to picture the relationship between her and Wendell Pierce’s
Greer over on the Krasinski Jack Ryan. She is trying to lead the team while
still looking out for Kelly when possible.
Jamie Bell is an interesting choice as Ritter, he seems so clearly the villain that when it is revealed he is not, I was a bit skeptical. Guy Pearce on the other hand, is so clearly bad he was only missing a moustache to twirl.
I was pretty excited to see both Cam Gigandet and Luke Mitchell as members of Kelly’s team in the beginning. Of course, they get eliminated pretty quickly, so no need to get attached there.
Brett Gelman of all people shows up as Viktor Rykov to hammer home the point that Kelly really has no clue who is in charge, what their plan is, or how many people are pawns in their game.
Overall, the movie is fine and if you like this type of
thing, you’ll like this. I really did
not care for it and was surprised by that. Typically Michael B. Jordan is charismatic
enough to bring me in to something I would otherwise not like, but here he
plays Kelly so stoic and grief-furious (rightfully so) that it felt a little closed
off from the audience. I also have gotten
to the point where I just shut down at this level of gun noise and violence. I am curious to see if they make Rainbow Six
and if it is similar or more spying less
shooting.
4 out of 10.
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