Without Remorse

Without Remorse is probably my favorite Tom Clancy book - imagine my excitement when I see it's been turned into a movie and then my utter disappointment after realizing that the only thing this movie has in common with the book are the title and the names of a few characters.

To add insult to injury, what follows is a bland storyline with at times nonsensical situations.

GodKratos said; You are here to rate a movie, not compare it to a book.

But if that's the case, why call it "TOM CLANCY's Without Remorse"? Doesn't invoking Clancy's name automatically invite comparison to his book? If the producers didn't want this comparison to be made, leave Clancy's name off the title and call it "Based on the book by Tom Clancy" in the credits.

With that said, I would call the movie "uninspiring". It could have been better.

If you're a fan of good acting and a well scripted storyline, prepare to be disappointed. If you have read the novel, it's even worse.

A generic shoot-'em-up that Hollywood used to do with Westerns ever since they began making movies. It doesn't matter that there's the military, espionage and geopolitical conspiracies involved in the Tom Clancy variation on the formula; it's always the same thing. The baddie and his red herring are so obvious that one of them might as well be wearing a black hat. But, sure, the action is standard, if darkly lit, and Michael B. Jordan fits the part of a muscular star to recognizably pose between the rest of the interchangeable tropes. Maybe you'll even find "Without Remorse" a bit fun with him not playing by the rules, out for revenge as he is. For crying out loud, we even get a mid-credits scene setting up a franchise.

When a movie is this dull, I start desperately looking for something to be worth my attention. One character makes a point regarding the Cold War having brought Americans together, whereas now without a common enemy one half sees the other half as the enemy. That comes too late to matter, though. There's also the business of Jordan's character telling his enemies to say his murdered wife's name. That got me thinking about the SayHerName campaign, but the picture doesn't do anything with its star being an African American, and in one sequence he takes out an entire squad of Russian police officers who are just doing their jobs. So, yeah, there's nothing here.

This is a pathetic excuse for a 'military' action movie with huge names and a big budget. There's 80's schlock better than this.

MBJ has some great performances, he sounds like a 80's action moron. Jodie Turner-Smith has done great dramatic works, here she seems cast to wear a navy uniform and say cliche nonsensical phrases.

I blame the writing. There's 80's schlock with better writing and more original ideas than this.

Zero and I mean ZERO of the people portraying military were convincing. During a scene where MBJ is yelling advice to a pilot "stay low" and "take evasive action" after a missile is launched, I thought "is this movie a joke?" Some people called this 'woke' or whatever with Jodie TS as a female Navy Seal. Honestly, I was wanting to accept the idea. But she was not at all convincing. She seemed stoned faced and had zero personality. Was that acting? It was awkward and painful. (btw I've gone back and watch her other works and think highly of her).

I'll say this, Tom Clancy books/movies have done well because they follow decent material and were marketed to a target audience. This movie seems to be taking the title, author & character's name, and slapping it onto a cheap plot with dialogue written by a 9th grader.

These 'Tom Clancy' movies will fail if they don't follow the formula that sells...to the target audience that BUYS his stuff.