Very disappointing...

So much average

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The Hunt for Red October (1990) This is a classic espionage thriller. It stars Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn, James Earl Jones, and Sam Neill. The film is based on Tom Clancy's 1984 bestselling novel of the same name. The film grossed $200,512,643 worldwide. It was well received by critics and audiences gave the film an average grade of A. The Hunt for Red October was nominated and won several awards in 1991. The film was also nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills. The Jack Ryan character was the first real attempt at an American equivalent to a James Bond. Later the advent of the Jason Bourne movies took on that function. Unlike Bourne or some versions of Bond, Ryan is more of a fish out of water. He is an analyst thrust into the action. The difference from the others is his mind is his weapon in this film. This is a solid psychological thriller, that hold up considerably, despite our knowledge of the subsequent films.

"The Hunt for Red October" deals with a Soviet submarine captain, who wants to change sides and thus leads his crew towards the American coastline. Back in the USA, officials don't know what to make of this Russian war machine, moving fast towards American soil. They have to decide whether this is the beginning of an epic attack or a cry for help from a new-found friend.In many aspects this is a classic and well-produced agent-thriller, evolving around the Cold War. The tension is high, the film in some ways unpredictable and the actors deliver tremendous perdormances. The switch between subtitled Russian and English can be a bit confusing, especially since it occurs only occassionally and not throughout the whole movie, some films have dealt with this instrument more consequently. But otherwise I think this is a very solid film, that doesn't raise epic questions but is produced very well.All in all you can't do much wrong with giving this film a try, even if some details may be a bit implausible (the Russian officials were a bit easy to convince to switch sides for example). Nontheless is remains with an interesting cast, a feeling for tension and moods.

Just by their very nature, submarine movies have that tension filled, claustrophobic atmosphere that usually guarantees putting viewers on edge. This one had a bit of a twist; unlike classics like "Das Boot" and "The Enemy Below", the rival sub commanders aren't in a life and death battle against each other. One thing you need to be prepared for is seeing Sean Connery in the role of a Russian (actually Lithuanian) military commander, so in effect he's fighting for the other side so to speak. Except he's not. His goal is to defect to the West with a newly designed Typhoon Class Russian sub with a silent propulsion system, making it virtually undetectable to other submarines.I don't know anything about submarines, but I have to acknowledge that the picture had a pretty impressive opening scene when it displayed the immensity of the Russian vessel. The picture gets into gear fairly quickly with Captain Marko Ramius (Connery) going rogue and killing the Soviet political operative assigned to the sub. The guy's name was Putin, and if the movie were made today, I'm pretty sure that name would have to be replaced by something else, seeing as how the Russian President might take offense.The story line creates intrigue with the back and forth political dealings between American and Russian officials, the Russians suggesting that the rogue captain of 'Red October' is of a mind to launch a nuclear missile strike against the U.S. In a real life situation, I fail to see how a Jack Ryan would ever be able to convince the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the Commander was about to defect instead, but the story line here makes it seem credible enough. I haven't read the Tom Clancy novel, but my understanding is that the book places these situations in a much clearer context.Anyway, this is a fairly good thriller with a competent cast. Things get especially tense at the finale when the Red October suffers a radiation leak and has to surface to ventilate. Boarding it, the Americans have to help Ramius thwart a sabotage attempt, a scene in which Tom Clancy's perennial hero Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) rises to the occasion.

A very average film that never ventures into bad territory but never really ventures into enjoyable territory either. John McTiernan's film looks well made, and it is competently directed, but there was nothing memorable or involving about the story, till the climax, and the plot device is questionable, as the culprit of this twist certainly had no motive nor was there an explanation for why he decided to turn on everyone on board, and I'm of course not talking about Connery, I'm referring to the cook who seemed to just pick up a gun and open fire, see who he could shoot, and that was perhaps the most interesting moment of the film, excluding one or two brilliant scenes of acting from Connery and a cool sequence involving a fairly tense loose missile underwater, but all in all I was not too impressed, and found the film fairly boring a lot of the time, with its clichés, safe narrative and passable performances from the rest of the cast, among it were Alec Baldwin, Sam Neil and Stellan Skarsgaard. The Hunt for Red October just didn't leave me feeling impressed, it's slow pace constantly shows, the story and writing were routine and uninspired and dialogue like "When I'm not kissing babies, I'm stealing there Lollipops", doesn't help the films case. This is safe, mediocre filmmaking that doesn't offer much in terms of entertainment or freshness.