Confident big budget version of Tom Clancy’s best seller done in the style of classical Hollywood – plenty of stars, strong story. Sean Connery plays his Russian with a wig and Scottish accent but he has plenty of authority; also strong are Sam Neill, Richard Jordon, Joss Ackland, Scott Glenn. Alec Baldwin is fine as Jack Ryan – it’s not much of a role here (he plays a nerd, basically), but he’s believably intelligent and better than Ben Affleck.
John Milius apparently worked on some of the Russian scenes and the dialogue has a Milius-esque flavour (in hindsight). My favourite bit though is during the final attack with Connery has made this big decision and a missile is on its way and he starts a casual chat with Alec Baldwin – I enjoyed this display of how some people keep relaxed under pressure.
The twists and turns keep you watching, though surprisingly the final explosion/shoot out is a bit of a damp squid. As an aside, I always loved the Mad magazine version of this story where Jack Ryan explains he knows all about Ramius from one meeting “because you can learn a lot about someone when you dance with them until dawn”.
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