Amazon Prime Movie Review: Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War


The latest installment of the Jack Ryan movie series on Amazon Prime, this time around, is a two-hour movie, not a series. It is a great example of producers trying to “squeeze as much money out of the rock” for a well-known name and franchise that I have ever seen.

The character of Jack Ryan started in 1990, starring Alec Baldwin in “The Hunt for Red October”, and spawned two very good movies movies, “Patriot Games” (1992) and “Clear and Present Danger (1994) starring Harrison Ford, “The Sum of All Fears” (2002) starring Ben Affleck, “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” (2014) and the current one, streaming now on Amazon Prime, “Jack Ryan Ghost War” (2026) starring John Krasinski. Krasinski also starred in 4 seasons of Jack Ryan in Prime in 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023.

This story grabs all that works in the previous Jack Ryan series, starting with the long-time close friendship between Jack Ryan, played by Krasinski, and James Greer, played by Wendell Pierce, where there are scenes of their affection and respect for one another and intense arguments, due to new revelations about cases they have worked on in the past. There are well-done scenes of massive gunfire, car chases, and shootouts inside buildings and cars blowing up. This movie also stars Sienna Miller, who plays an MI6 agent Emma Marlow, and Max Beesley as Liam Crown, who is the evil leader of a criminal organization.

The problem is that there is nothing new in this movie; we have seen it all before in the four Prime series and the previous five movies. In the rush to make more money in the Jack Ryan series, the realization was that name recognition would probably mean that less time would be necessary to write an interesting and innovative screenplay. People will probably want to stream this new movie because of the name “Jack Ryan”; there’s no need to take 18 months to write and then re-write a new screenplay. Let’s make money now.

This unfortunate, slap-together story and then rushing to production is the number one reason why this movie is getting such low marks on Rotten Tomatoes of 45%. I agree with this rating and do not recommend this movie. You are better off watching the older movies or the early Jack Ryan series.

Movie Review: In the Grey


The new movie “In the Grey” is one of those rare, below-average January movies that are released in May. This film is another example of several well-known stars agreeing to appear in a bad movie due to a favor, contract, or previous verbal agreement, forcing them to act in a movie with a bad screenplay. This film was both written and directed by Guy Ritchie, and I was surprised by how low-quality this movie is, considering the huge experience Guy Ritchie has as both a screenwriter and director. afsgasdfa

The Grey has five well-known bankable actors, including Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal, Fisher Stevens, Eiza González, and Rosamund Pike. It is possible that the screenplay below average was on hold for a long time, with money already committed to its production. Then a decision was made to hire these five well-known actors to try to save the box office. Due to the very low 47% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, saving the box office for this movie is highly unlikely.

Eiza Gonzalez plays Rachel, who is an independent operative who is hired to coerce huge debts from very wealthy criminals around the world. She works with mercenaries, played by Gyllenhaal and Cavill, with much of this story explaining how they will try to force a wealthy drug dealer Manny Salazar, played by Carlos Bardem, to pay them 1 billion dollars. The story is erratic, too disconnected, and too convoluted to recommend as an action or drama movie. The acting is just OK, with action scenes that are nothing we have not seen many times before.

I agree with the low 47% Rotten Tomatoes rating and recommend this B-movie for right-to-DVD.

Movie Review: The Devil Wears Prada 2


The last time there was a major social media interest fervor for creating a sequel to a production that had been off the air for years is the outstanding TV series “Suits,” which ran for nine years from 2011 to 2019. This resulted in a TV sequel on NBC, “LA Suits,” which was a disaster of 13 episodes that ran for one season in 2025 and was immediately cancelled for low ratings and bad episodes. The problem with racing into a new production based on buzz on social media are that very often the new show is rushed, to take advantage of what could be a temporary anomaly of enthusiasm, mostly to cash in on ratings and box office. Unfortunately, when a new production is rushed because of social media buzz and is based on a previous show that was outstanding, what results is a bad TV show or movie. The bottom line is that you cannot rush quality. Creating a new great idea or writing a great screenplay can take years.

“The Devil Wears Prada”, released in 2006, has maintained its popularity on Cable TV for twenty years. This is one of those movies that, even though you have seen it many times, you still want to watch it again. The quality and great moments in this original film are relatable to everybody who has ever worked for a company and/or with very difficult people. This includes the incredible rudeness of CEO of the magazine “Runway”, Miranda Priestly, (Meryl Streep), and the ongoing nastiness of Andy’s coworker Emily (Emily Blunt).

Miranda’s inconsiderate behavior towards Andy (Anne Hathaway) included not even remembering her name, throwing her coat on Andy’s desk, mean, condescending comments, ignoring, and dismissing at a level at times that are so extreme they are funny. Far too many of us have been subjected to this kind of employment garbage daily, only because someone else has us under their financial thumb. This harsh reality of making a living is one of the most unfortunate parts about being alive and needing money to buy food and shelter.

The sequel, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” is a far better effort than Suits LA. The screenplay was written by Aline Brosh McKenna and Lauren Weisberger, walked the line of giving the audience reminders of some of the best moments of the original, with enough new ideas that make this movie experience not seem exploitive. The bottom line in any new movie production like this, is to make money first. Taking huge risks is far too often not an option because the producers do not want to alienate the fans of the original movie. Therefore, frequent reminders of the original are to be expected.

The other main character returning for this sequel is Stanley Tucci, who is outstanding as Nigel, with Lucy Liu as a famous fashion mogul whom Miranda wants to interview to save Runway because the magazine is going through hard times due to the greatly reduced interest in print media, due to publishing on the internet. I also thought that the twist at the end of this story, about wealthy businessmen screwing over other wealthy people, was too similar to the ending of the original film. Lady Gaga also has a cameo towards the end of this movie along with Donatella Versace, Naomi Campbell and Heidi Klum.

Overall, I thought this sequel was good, but nearly as great as the original, with the acting good throughout. I agree with the 79% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and give this movie a moderate recommendation.