{"id":16400,"date":"2021-04-29T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=16400"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:14:40","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:14:40","slug":"review-tom-clancys-without-remorse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/review-tom-clancys-without-remorse\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Though the novel it\u2019s based on is simply called \u201cWithout Remorse,\u201d the Amazon original movie Tom Clancy\u2019s Without Remorse<\/em> firmly establishes its IP provenance in its official name. The title\u2019s prefix ensures that it will be quickly found by dads everywhere searching for \u201cTom Clancy\u201d on Amazon \u2014 and that it will be easily identifiable with their successful show Tom Clancy\u2019s Jack Ryan<\/em>. Sure, the e-commerce and content giant could have simply added a tag on the backend, but the user-facing title makes it clear that this isn\u2019t just any old original story (because who wants those?); instead it\u2019s the origin story of John Clark. However, despite the bestselling author\u2019s name, there\u2019s little to distinguish this bland, utterly boring action film, making it appear closer to a Clancy knockoff than the real deal, like a misspelling-filled Amazon listing that garners one-star reviews. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously played by Willem Dafoe in 1994\u2019s Clear and Present Danger<\/em> and Liev Schreiber in 2002\u2019s The Sum of All Fears<\/em>, Clark is portrayed here by Michael B. Jordan. He\u2019s introduced not as the John Clark known to fans of the Jack Ryan books, movies, and TV show, but as John Kelly. In the film\u2019s first minutes, the Navy SEAL helps extract a hostage from Aleppo, Syria, where his team is surprised to discover they are fighting Russian soldiers, information that CIA agent Robert Ritter (Jamie Bell) didn\u2019t feel they needed to know. Shortly after John returns home to his pregnant wife, Pam (Lauren London), she and their unborn daughter are murdered in a string of killings related to the operation he and his team just completed. John barely survives the attack, and when it becomes clear that the U.S. won\u2019t investigate his family or fellow soldiers\u2019 deaths, John vows revenge. The Navy SEAL\u2019s impulse of self-sacrifice bleeds into self-destruction, as John uses his elite skills to find justice outside the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Written by Taylor Sheridan and Chris Staples, Without Remorse<\/em> lacks the propulsive energy of Sheridan\u2019s best work. The solid Sicario <\/em>(2015) and the truly great Hell or High Water <\/em>(2016) had a strong sense of place and character, but Without Remorse<\/em> is set both everywhere and nowhere, and is populated by no one. Like any espionage movie, Without Remorse<\/em> jets across the globe, but international settings and domestic ones alike lack the details that make places come alive on film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Characters wander in and out of scenes with little definition as to who they really are or what they\u2019re doing there, even when they\u2019re played by talented actors like Guy Pearce, Jodie Turner-Smith, Brett Gelman, and Colman Domingo. Domingo \u2014 so perfect in 2020\u2019s Ma Rainey\u2019s Black Bottom<\/em> and, you know, everything he appears in \u2014 is so underutilized in Without Remorse <\/em>that he should have been promised a larger role in Rainbow Six<\/em>, the sequel teased in the mid-credits scene, but it seems unlikely. The script focuses on a single, facile metaphor \u2014 the pawn and king in chess \u2014 that it beats repeatedly like a man John blames for the death of his wife. And that wife? All we know of John\u2019s dead wife is her name, which he commands people to say in his quest for justice. She only exists for her death to fuel John\u2019s often brutal vengeance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Casting Jordan makes sense for such a physical role; in 2015\u2019s Creed<\/em> and its sequel, as well as 2018\u2019s Black Panther<\/em>, the actor proved that he knows how to fight on screen. But out of all its set pieces, only one in Without Remorse<\/em> is actually compelling and makes some sense, even with Jordan\u2019s physicality. Action sequences that should feel thrilling are interminable thanks to  Stefano Sollima\u2019s lifeless direction. He allows none of Jordan\u2019s charm or range to appear in his film either; of course, John grieves after his wife\u2019s murder, but Jordan doesn\u2019t get much to do to express it other than pound the ground. As he exists here, John could\u2019ve been played by anyone with a nice set of traps who can throw a punch. In fact, the cast is filled <\/em>with talented people who are either miscast or not given much to do. After 2019\u2019s Queen & Slim<\/em>, I wanted to see Turner-Smith in anything and everything, but I clearly should\u2019ve been more specific in what I was asking for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It isn\u2019t just the lackluster action scenes that tempt viewers toward their phones \u2014 or simply turning the movie off in favor of thousands of other options. Without Remorse <\/em>suffers for its dearth of dynamic set pieces, but it also seems disinterested in engaging with the moral complexity of what John is doing by taking justice into his own hands. You\u2019ve got to have one or the other; you can\u2019t be both dull and dumb. \"\"\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

D+<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

“Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse” streams Friday on Amazon Prime Video<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n