By Aaron Schweitzer, Editor
Has it ever occurred to you that John Kelly has done something we can’t? Some situations warrant thinking outside the box.
It’s time to talk about what was my most anticipated movie of 2021! Let’s get this out of the way first: I am a huge fan of Tom Clancy’s works. It started with the video games (Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, The Division), then it moved to the movies based off his books (The Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger), then it lead to me eventually reading the books and loving them! But I am going to do my best to review this movie as separate from the book (although I’ll give a paragraph going over a few differences) because that’s what a movie review should be.
Aside from my Clancy bias, I was so excited for this movie because all the pieces seemed to fit. Michael B. Jordan is undoubtedly one of the most promising actors of this generation, then add performers to support him like Colman Domingo, Guy Pearce, Jamie Bell, and Jodie Turner-Smith and that just makes it better. Throw in Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water, Sicario) writing and now you’ve got me giddy. But add director Stefano Sollima (Sicario: Day of the Soldado) and it just seems like a match made in heaven. But what this actually turns out to be feels like Sheridan had a less than great script in his back pocket, a studio said, “Write us something and use this character,” so he tweaked a few things and the studio made some changes to make it a bit more basic, then released the movie.
I chose that quote at the top because that’s what this movie’s main fault is: its inability to do something new and think outside the box. There’s certainly enough here that I am going to recommend it, but at the same time, you’ve seen this movie before several times. Good guy retires from the military, good guy’s past comes to haunt him via his loved ones dying, good guy wants revenge, generic plot twist, and fake-out ending leading to sequel bait.
There are several other things about this movie that were absolutely the wrong choice. Let’s just say there’s an actor who is typecast as the surprise villain at this point and when the reveal comes, it just isn’t shocking because you figured it out 40 minutes ago. There’s also the film’s main antagonist being played by Brett Gelman, who I generally enjoy, but can only think to myself, Wait, I’m supposed to be intimidated by the guy from The Other Guys who chases after them yelling, “YOU GET BACK HERE AND HAVE SEX WITH MY WIFE!” Hehe, I love that movie… Wait, where was I? Oh yeah.
I do want to point out some things that I love about the movie. First and foremost, Michael B. Jordan is everything that we’ve come to expect him to be. For a movie that’s pretty apathetic and plain, he manages to make us want to root for this movie every second he’s onscreen. And the other huge factor for why I am recommending this movie is Stefano Sollima. I think this movie is really well directed, especially the action scenes, and elevates this vanilla story to actually be pretty watchable.
At the end of the day, I wanted this movie to be so much better, but I don’t think it’s bad. It’s just nothing and that is a shame. If you have no love for the book, the character, or the property, you may like this slightly more than I do, but I think you’ll likely forget about this one quicker than I will. And I really hope I’m wrong because the announced sequel, Rainbow Six, is based off my favorite book of all time. (Oh yeah, stick around for the mid-credits.) I wish I would have gotten the opportunity to see this in theaters, but hopefully enough people watch this on Prime (when it releases on April 30) to make the sequel and show us where the magic really is.
Grade: C
Here’s your book comparison, as promised. If you’ve read any Clancy books, you know he gets pretty technical with military jargon, but Without Remorse is the exception. It’s more a book about this human and the impact that tragedy has on his life. If you’ve read this particular book, just throw it all out the window. John Clark was a very honor-bound soldier, not one who has no trust in his superiors. His mission sent off to watch with a sniper for days is completely eradicated for some quick and easy standoff that is definitely the highlight of the movie. Also, Clark’s family is straight up murdered instead of killed in a car accident and while his wife is named Pam, she in no ways the Pam we know from the book. In fact, scrap the whole sex-trafficking subplot. Speaking of female characters, remember Sandy O’Toole? Well, you can fuggetaboutah. And Clark’s slow-to-speak mentality and thoughtful complexity is replaced for some generic action hero. But the one thing they keep true to the book is when anyone encounters him, you know they’re going to be dealt with quickly and brutally.
You can follow Aaron Schweitzer on Twitter