A Few Words About A few words about...™ Jack Ryan: 5-Film Collection -- in 4k UHD Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

The fact that there is an upcoming Jack Ryan Amazon series, premiering on August 31, makes a perfect time for Paramount to release the feature films - all five of them - on 4k.

The films arrived over a 24-year span, beginning in 1990 with The Hunt for Red October, followed in 1992 with Patriot Games, 1994 with Clear and Present Danger, 2002 with The Sum of All Fears and finally in 2014 with Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

The final title sounds like a video game.

The leads have ranged from Alec Baldwin (but with Sean Connery in a top role) to Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine, and always with superb supporting players.

Directors, John McTiernan, Phillip Noyce (2 & 3), Phil Alden Robinson, and Kenneth Branagh, who also appeared.

While all were shot on film, the final installment was finished as a 2k DI. Whether negative was cut, and the studio returned to film for the 4k is questionable, but all look superb.

The first four are tack sharp, with a gorgeous river of grain, and beautifully rendered shadow detail and black levels.

Tracks on all are excellent, as one would presume. The first four are Dolby TrueHD 5.1, while the final is DTS HD 7.1

Pricing couldn't be more fair. Currently $70 for the five films. For those without an abacus, that works out to $14 a film for true (back to film) 4k. A bargain for five superb thrillers.

Image - 5

Audio - 5 (Dolby TrueHD 5.1 / DTS HD-MA 7.1)

Pass / Fail - Pass

Upgrade from Blu-ray - Absolutely!

Highly Recommended

RAH

 

[Michael Osadciw]

I will need to cross the border for this one. No Canadian release yet. Bummer. I find I'm enjoying more 4K from film then I am from 4K DI releases. It's more fun watching through a layer of grain. The grain is a faint curtain at screen level yet there is depth that goes deep right behind it. Warmth. It's like archaeology...seeing into the past as clearly as possible.

 

[Matt Hough]

The leads have ranged from Sean Connery to Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine, and always with superb supporting players.

While Sean Connery is certainly the lead in The Hunt for Red October, it would be unfair not to mention Alec Baldwin who played the Jack Ryan character in that first film version.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

While Sean Connery is certainly the lead in The Hunt for Red October, it would be unfair not to mention Alec Baldwin who played the Jack Ryan character in that first film version.

Yes, it seems like the guy who played the ostensible main character should be named, but Connery really does play the "lead". Ryan takes a definite backseat to Ramius!

 

[Tino]

Hunt is the only one I’m interested in. I’ll wait for a single release.

By the way the kindle version of The Hunt For Red October is on sale today for $1.99.

 

[Patrick Hannon]

I will need to cross the border for this one. No Canadian release yet. Bummer. I find I'm enjoying more 4K from film then I am from 4K DI releases. It's more fun watching through a layer of grain. The grain is a faint curtain at screen level yet there is depth that goes deep right behind it. Warmth. It's like archaeology...seeing into the past as clearly as possible.

Michael:

I picked up a copy yesterday.....Thursday.....at the local Best Buy here...way out in NL!!! The BB web site did not show store stock for this item. It was "only" CAN$69.99...not bad as Amazon.com shows US$69.99.

Cheers,
Phannon

 

[Malcolm R]

My favorites are the two Ford films, but I enjoyed them all except Sum of All Fears (never been a fan of Affleck).

 

[Colin Jacobson]

My favorites are the two Ford films, but I enjoyed them all except Sum of All Fears (never been a fan of Affleck).

"C&PD" is probably my favorite, but I've never much cared for "Patriot Games".

"Hunt" is probably my 2nd favorite...

 

[Robert Crawford]

If anybody is interested, iTunes is selling this 5-Movie Collection for $29.99 and all titles are 4K/UHD.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

If anybody is interested, iTunes is selling this 5-Movie Collection for $29.99 and all titles are 4K/UHD.

Thanks, Robert. I was considering just buying The Hunt For Red October on UHD disc when these eventually were released individually, but at $6 per film I just bit on the iTunes deal. I have never seen The Sum of All Fears (but did read the book) or Shadow Recruit. I only owned THFRO on DVD, and did not have any of the other films in my collection at all. I'm not a big Affleck fan, but I'll give him a chance.

 

[RobertR]

I've been reading the Tom Clancy books. Hunt is the only movie that does justice to the source material. I did not like what was done with Clear and Present Danger, and from what I've read, I wouldn't like Patriot Games either. I won't ever bother to watch even a few seconds of Sum of All Fears. The changes to that one (done out of political correctness) are truly execrable.

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

I won't ever bother to watch even a few seconds of Sum of All Fears. The changes to that one (done out of political correctness) are truly execrable.

I don’t think the changes work well, but you are wrong on why the change was made. It wasn’t out of ‘political correctness’. That’s nonsense. Director Phil Alden Robinson is on record saying the change, which was made before the September 11 attacks, was made because it didn’t seem plausible (to him) for Arab terrorists to pull off the sophisticated attack as written in the book.

 

[Jack P]

Which would be a testament to his naivete rooted in his desire to be PC.

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

Which would be a testament to his naivete rooted in his desire to be PC.

Horseshit.

 

[Jack P]

No the "horsebleep" (I'm not stooping to your level) is that anyone with an IQ above a single digit following the first WTC bombing and every other notable terrorist attack going over the course of decades would somehow think Arab terrorists weren't capable of being "sophisticated" to do something very heinous.

And FYI, Buster, I nearly lost a family member in the North Tower on 9/11, so I don't need a lecture on what is and isn't "horsebleep" regarding someone's refusal to recognize the world as it really was before and after that date.

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

No the "horsebleep" (I'm not stooping to your level) is that anyone with an IQ above a single digit following the first WTC bombing and every other notable terrorist attack going over the course of decades would somehow think Arabs weren't capable of being "sophisticated" to do something very heinous.

Well he, and a sizable group of the intelligence community, were wrong, but that doesn’t mean he was making the changes to be ‘PC’ - that’s something a certain group of people like to sum things up to when they don’t like it.

 

[Jack P]

Which hardly would account for why this industry has in general had a bigger aversion to showing "sophisticated' Arab terrorists even *after* 9/11.

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

Which hardly would account for why this industry has in general had a bigger aversion to showing "sophisticated' Arab terrorists even *after* 9/11.

None of which is relevant to the choices made for The Sum of all Fears.

 

[Jack P]

But plenty relevant in judging whether there's an instinctive PC mentality in the industry.

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

But plenty relevant in judging whether there's an instinctive PC mentality in the industry.

As you see it.