Sum Of All Fears...Horrible Beyond Words

myself | 6-1-02 | my favorite headache

[My Favorite Headache]

Just came in from the 12:20 AM showing of Sum Of All Fears. I am going to make this short and sweet. It could possibly be the biggest waste of time and money ever put on screen. Completely full of false info in the case of these actual events and it made anyone who was on the right wing seem like they prayed for doomsday.

Also made the Muslim who originally found the bomb from the shot down Israeli plane and sold it on the black market...the hero in the end because he gave up the buyer's name.

I could write for an hour about all of the things that were awful and wrong about this movie but why bother? I mean Ben Affleck aka Jack Ryan managed to outlive a nuclear blast and still use his cell phone and find his girlfriend at the same time!

About 1 minute total of explosion scenes....that is it. WASTE OF TIME!

[SAJ]

Perfect! Thank you for taking your time to recite all the topics/subjects/themes in Clancy's book that the socialist slime in Hollywood refused to include.

[SAJ]

BTW, one tiny error on your part. In the novel, Ryan was DDCI, not DCI...but what the heck. Whatever his official title, he was the man on the hot seat.

[CaliGirlGodHelpMe]

I believe that, if these terrible prognostications were ever to become reality, there would be very little "carnage" - just bewildered human beings being swept away, obliterated by a force they don't understand, and didn't have time to prepare for. Let's pray it never comes to pass. Cali

[PuNcH]

neo-fascism.. lol

[Looking4Truth]

Thanks for confirming my decision to boycot the movie. I hope others do as well. I'm tired of hollywad deciding what is and is not good for us to see on screen - especially when political correctness is involved.

Thanks to all FReepers. I will not pay good money for this P.O.S. Besides that, to heck with a p*ssy like Ben Affleck playing the role of Jack Ryan.

[Gramps]

It could possibly be the biggest waste of time and money ever put on screen.

I've seen a few movies in my day and I'd put this one in the bottom six.

[bird humming]

...aka Jack Ryan managed to outlive a nuclear blast and still use his cell phone and find his girlfriend at the same time!

Plus, have a picnic w/his galpal in front of the White House. No radiation sickness, galpal looks cute & perky. I did enjoy the popcorn & nachos.:)

[strela]

Thanks for the confirmation. I had a couple of hours of free time blocked out today, and I was trying to decide whether to go see this or get a haircut. I think I'm going to get my ears lowered instead.

[SamAdams76]

I think Clancy is a lousy writer. But his books are well-researched and that alone makes his books worth plodding through. The characters in his books are one-dimensional and some of the situations (such as between Jack Ryan and his super-woman wife Cathy) border on the absurd. I mean, Jack works over 100+ hours at the CIA (sleeping over many nights) and yet his wife still finds time to be John Hopkins top eye surgeon and puts in 100+ hours a week herself. And of course they have the perfect marriage. All this while raising a kid. C'mon! It's totally implausible. I suppose Clancy is afraid of offending the politically correct types in Hollywood if he made Cathy a housewife.

Anyway, I have read all his novels except the recent "Bear And The Dragon." The best of the lot was the book on John Clark (Without Remorse). Frankly, I'd rather be reading non-fiction books about the military. Right now I have dived into Shelby Foote's three-book series on the Civil War. Outstanding.

[RightOnline]

Re: Your #39: Hadn't read the book, but after reading your excellent post, I now know that I will not go see this movie. Our team at work was going to take an afternoon together and go see this next week.

I'll talk 'em out of it.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

PC killed the movie version of "Red October" as well. I "discovered" THFRO from an item in the Washington Post in 1985, when it was still a word of mouth best seller. It was taut, subtle, insightful, with vidid characters and a compelling plot. The movie refused to portray the Lithuanian Captian's resentment of the brutal Soviet regime.

Because Hollywood couldn't bear to tell the truth about the Soviet Union, the movie was a snooze. Coudda been a contenda.

[The Raven]

The movie is a cowardly liberal bed-wetting PC bucket of slop

ROFL......You need to stop sitting on the fence. How do you really feel?

[SamAdams76]

Clancy is a hack. Of course, many other wildly successful authors are hacks too. Stephen King and John Grisham come to mind.

McDonalds sells a billion hamburgers a year but that doesn't make it gourmet food.

Of course, the success of these "hacks" give this would-be author hope for the future. I'm hoping to get a book published someday and Charles Dickens, I ain't.

[Jhensy]

Ummm... am I the only one here on Free Republic who hated Arlington Road for the typical Tim Robbins evil right-wing kneejerk paranoia garbage that it is?

[mumbo]

Yep. "Arlington Road" was the movie that really tried to get people to look past the 'lone nut case' scenario that is always presented in movies and the news. It really made me start to think hard about some of these mass shootings and other similar events...

[bonesmccoy]

Your editorial regarding Hollywood's liberal tilt and "Sum of all Fears" is right on target! Your name suggests that you understand the propaganda value of manipulation of the media, incluing film. These films are specifically created to produce a social effect.

The problem with Hollywood's executives is that they have consistently underestimated the audience's sophistication. Pearl Harbor was simply a special effects movie based on a real event. However, the film makers knew more about camera angles and makeup than about USN machine guns and Japanese Navy Zeroes. That's how you end up with Michael Bay showing a gunner aiming his gun horizontally to shoot a plane (but in reality that would have shot the adjacent Battleship).

Ironically, during the NBA Laker game on NBC, ABC was broadcasting some kind of Hollywood Awards Show...during one commercial break at the NBA game, I flipped the dial and found that (lo and behold) the show was touting Michael Bay.

Smirk!

[Wave Rider]

You have notice as well as most that when Hollywad gets there hands on anything good they screw it up to Highest Degree like the Lefto-Pinky Klitoooooon tried and almost succeeded, they just can't leave things alone and make their movies based on the writings....

[stiga bey]

Conservative white males. The only group remaining that it is safe to pick on.

Here's an idea: Why don't the "outed" conservatives in Hollywood like Schwartzenegger, Selleck, Willis, Woods, etc., pool their money and resources and start a new studio? Take in investors like Clancy, Limbaugh, O'Reilley? They wouldn't even need to make counter-propaganda movies, just truthful ones.