I'm surprise Tom Clancy didn't sue the filmmakers over this movie! most of the lead characters are just a rip-off of characters from a Tom Clancy novel. For Dr David Grant read Jack Ryan, Lt. Colonel Austin Travis read John Clake and Rat read Domingo Chavez.
shareI think you're right but I also believe you cannot copyright broad generic types. I'm betting they could find dozens/hundreds of (1) back room intelligence turned action hero (2) strong silent hero etc etc in a large range of books of which Jack Ryan and Co are only a recent and commercially successful example. Unless of course you can afford to hire some of the shysters who work for Apple.
shareThis was definitely made more for the "Die Hard on a..." subgenre than the Jack Ryan fanbase. For a start, the male leads (Russell and Seagal) are conventional action stars, whereas Jack Ryan went for Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford (the latter when he had moved away from the swashbuckling Solo/Indy phase of his career).
I'll admit though, a lot of the action sequences did have a Phillip Noyce feel about them.
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Space Shuttle Atlantis: the music video http://youtu.be/ZZ67FMfC1Gg
definitely, I was expecting for a Die Hard type action movie but it did feel more like a Jack Ryan thriller. You could probably easily replace the Kurt Russell character with Jack Ryan and it could work as an installment in that series.
shareHey, any movie that kills off Steven Seagal early on is OK in my book. But seriously, this was a much better movie than expected. I think Stuart Baird, the director deserves a lot of credit for that, as does David Suchet playing Hasan. He gave a lot more layers to the role than most movies would have.
I think that's where you give yourself a good "Die Hard on a..." movie: give plenty of substance to the bad guy and get an actor who can play it well.
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"Russians...so many Russians."---Col. John Casey, Chuck