Without Remorse

April 30, 202150/1006 min
Starring
Michael B. Jordan, Jodi Turner-Smith, Jamie Bell, Guy Pearce
Written by
Taylor Sheridan and Will Staples (Screenplay) Tom Clancy (Novel)
Directed by
Stefano Sollima
Run Time
1h 50min
Release Date
April 30th, 2021
Overall Score
Rating Summary

The search for the next great action star is always on. We all want that hero to save the world while uttering some great one liners. The studio system has tried their best to choose who they think is the one, when most of the time they swipe right they should have been swiping left. Enter Michael B. Jordan, who has already earned his street cred with Black Panther and the Creed films so tackling a Tom Clancy character should come with some ease. Clancy, who has written books that were tuned into movies like The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and Clear and Present Danger  all centering on and making a hero out of the character Jack Ryan. Jordan plays John Kelly, a Navy Seal who is pretty much the ultimate badass. His team is given a mission to rescue a hostage, that turns out to have a lot more strings attached than they were told.

Some time passes by and life is good for John, who with his wife Pam (Lauren London) are expecting a baby any day. Things never go as planned and someone wants revenge for that rescue mission and manages to kill a few members of John’s team and nearly him as well. When Kelly comes to, his only thought is revenge and finds a way to get some info that will get him back into the game. The thing about Clancy’s stories, as they tend to be a thinking man’s action movie, meaning it’s not all wham-bam-thank you ma’m. While the action is good, you can see where the story is heading, as the clues don’t just sit there, they scream at you to look at them. The screenplay written by Taylor Sheridan and Will Staples also lacks the intrigue that has filled most of the Clancy novels/movies thus far. In most of the stories, especially the ones with Jack Ryan as the main character, it was a story about a regular guy having to become a hero. In Without Remorse there is no doubt who the hero is going to be and Jordan comes off more Stallone than Harrison Ford.

Once Kelly gets the info he needs, he is off on a covert mission, where all he wants is to find out is the truth, but when he opens one door he finds another bigger door behind it. After a few twist and turns you see coming, Kelly is the hero we need  to no one’s surprise begins to utilize his particular method of problem solving. Without Remorse is definitely not peak Tom Clancy on the big screen, but it does have some things working for it. First off is Jordan who can do no wrong, is a great action star. He has the look and the attitude down and I hope he gets his own action series to kick ass and star in. Unfortunately this one is not it, that is unless they get someone who can write a better screenplay. Director Stefano Sollima doesn’t lean on the films strengths and not only does he waste Jordan, he also wastes a great supporting cast with the likes of  Jodie Turner-Smith,  Jamie Bell, and Guy Pearce, who plays creepy like no other. I wanted to be able to get behind this, as I am a fan of most of Clancy’s novels that were turned into movies and even though this isn’t bad, it also isn’t on those early films level. I hope Jordan gets another shot with a better story, because he has the goods and he deserves something better than what this is offering.

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