So anyway, after Phillip Royce and Harrison Ford, the director and star of the prior two films, removed themselves from this production, Neufeld and executive producer Tom Clancy (the man himself) came up with the two best alternatives to fill their shoes with: the star of Gigli and the guy that brought us Sneakers (there’s an in-joke to that title in this film, as well).

The story in a nutshell: some desert nomads discover a 27-year-old fission bomb in the Middle East, a guy named Olson (Colm Feore - who needs more work, by the way) buys it for $400 and sells it to some Neo-Nazis (led by Alan Bates) who convert it into a more modern nuclear weapon and ship it off to Baltimore.  The bomb blows up (whoops, spoiler - but the trailer gave that away anyway) and the United States (under the command of James Cromwell, whose character in the original novel was the same as Donald Moffat’s in Clear And Present Danger, but since they screwed that adaptation up, too, they had to change it, right?) all-but declares war on Russia and its new president, Nemerov (Ciarán Hinds).  Jack Ryan saves the world. 

If you’re a follower of Clancy’s Ryanverse, you’ll probably know that Jack should have been about twice the age he is here in this one, but since Affleck was onboard, the story was re-written to make him nothing more than an entry-level CIA analyst.  Affleck’s presence also caused Morgan Freeman’s character of DCI William Cabot to be written in so that young Jack Ryan would have a mentor, so if you’re a fan of Clancy’s novels, you will no doubt hate this rather faithless adaptation.  If you like Ben Affleck and moronic Hollywood alterations however, The Sum Of All Fears is for you.

The best parts of this movie however are the experienced actors playing “minor” roles, including the great Liev Schreiber as John Clark (played by Willem Dafoe in the last film), Colm Feore, and Michael Byrne.  TV fans will want to keep an eye out for former “Alias” villain Ron Rifkin and Dr. Bob Kelso from “Scrubs” (Ken Jenkins).  Bridget Moynahan plays Dr. Cathy Muller (the future Mrs. Ryan).

Presentation
Paramount brings us The Sum Of All Fears in a very grand-looking 1080p 2.35:1 widescreen transfer with some wonderfully bright colors and no sign of debris whatsoever (which is to be expected since it’s a 2002 release).  The English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack comes through rather well (the dialogue sounds a little low at times) and additional tracks are available in French and Spanish (both of which are Dolby Digital 5.1).

For those of you who shutter at the very sound of Ben Affleck’s voice, you can turn the sound off and turn on the Subtitles, which are brought to you (by the letter K and the number 3) in English, English (SDH), French, Spanish, Portuguese.

Extras
Note: the Extras included here are the same ones you’ll find on the 2002 DVD release.

Two Audio Commentaries are included here: the first with director Phil Alden Robinson and cinematographer John Lindley.  The second is with Robinson (again), but this time he’s joined by the wonderful Tom Clancy, who starts the very entertaining commentary by informing us all that Robinson totally ignored his book, points out all of the flaws and errors the director marked this film with, mocks sushi, and admires the acting skills of Liev Schreiber.  Listening to this track, one has to wonder if Robinson actually bothered to consult with Clancy during the making of the film.  Plus, Robinson points out how smart Schreiber is…which makes me wonder who talked him into doing that awful remake of The Manchurian Candidate?

Several additional Special Features are also included: The Making Of The Sum Of All Fears, which is divided into two parts: A Cautionary Tale: Casting (12:55) and A Cautionary Tale: Production (17:00).  The second Featurette, Creating Reality: The Visual Effects Of The Sum Of All Fears (27:48), gives us an in-depth look at the making of the models and CGI used in the film (note how the producer’s son was the guy in charge of the visual effects department!).  This Behind-the-Scenes look is also broken up into several parts: Carrier Attack, A-4, Hospital, Motorcade, and Helicopter.  The last Bonus Feature included is the original Theatrical Trailer (2:24) and is the only Extra presented in High Def.

The Bottom Line
Hopefully Clancy will write his own script next time and serve as a technical advisor.