Whether you're a fan of the franchise, the cast or the action, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is one action thriller you don't want to miss. Starring Chris Pine as the modern Jack Ryan who starts his career in the armed forces, but it doesn't take long for his ordinary life to become a thrilling (and life threatening) adventure. When William Harper (Kevin Costner) recruits him as a CIA Agent, Ryan accepts without really knowing what and who he is up against. As Jack Ryan tells William Harper himself, "You sold this as an office job." Although the life of a CIA analyst, and working in a bank in Wall Street, sounds a lot like desk work, the life of this "ordinary" man is about to come face-to-face with one of Russia's modern faces of terrorism, Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh). “I like the Cold War era and the big sort of elemental standoff between, in this case, Russia and America, and east and west and old and new and old empires and new empires. One of the excitements about trying to reimagine it was finding a world, so the interconnectivity of the financial markets was one that was both interesting and a bit of a brain teaser for me,” said director Kenneth Branagh.

While action and thrill are the main themes, a few unexpected laughs give the movie some extra flavor. Similarly, Costner also gives us something to laugh about, "I had three little kids within the last five years… I’ve just had enough of the minivan.” So did we! Costner’s character is but another epic and shining performance of the actor. He added, “I thought, I have to go back to killing somebody for real or you know, action movies, ‘cause this is too tough. But I did, about the last year and a half, after I did Hatfields and got on a horse again, I started to feel, you know, my love of acting.” But, what happens when Harper and Ryan work together to fight against the Russians? Well, you'll have to watch for yourself and find out.

Both Chris and Kevin have the looks, but it takes a little more to distract an ingenious but nefarious Russian terrorist. Jack’s girlfriend, Kathy Muller (Keira Knightley) puts her sex appeal to the ultimate test while becoming a distraction and letting the boys do the “dirty work”.  “I don’t know if I’ve ever had more fun with an actress. She could not have been any more professional,” said Chris Pine about the talented Keira Knightley.

Although Jack Ryan is not new news, as this franchise has been around since the 1990's when Tom Clancy created the character, Chris Pine is definitely our modern day Jack. His career keeps escalating, with big box office movies like Star Trek Pine is becoming a Hollywood Star on high demand. But, with an already established list of Hollywood actors, why Chris Pine for the role? Producer Mace Neufeld said, "Well, he was the right age for the character. He’s an extremely attractive young man. And those were the first two things I knew about him. Then I saw him in Star Trek and I was kind of blown away."

“Shadow Recruit” is clever, smart, and fast, but out of all the countries for Jack Ryan to get lost in, why Russia? Producer, Lorenzo Di Bonaventura tells us, “So the script actually originally was placed in Dubai and it got moved there because it just felt like that was the most believable place, and it’s also you needed Moscow because you needed Jack Ryan to feel like there was nowhere to turn. And if you’ve been to Moscow it’s a really exciting, really great city, but it still feels like, you know, you should be a little careful about which way you’re gonna step. And so you wanted that sense of pressure on the plot and then on the character. So you know, and I produced Salt and it did great in Russia, so we’ll be okay.”

Without a dull moment, this film is clearly headed to an epic movie classics list. As director Kenneth Branagh said, "I wanted to make a movie having grown up loving them where a man passes on information to another man in a cinema, where two men meet on a bench at night in Moscow and talk about the fate of the world, while a dog is distracting people from thinking that they’re doing anything nefarious, and you know, combine action/thriller with working with great actors."

Many may underestimate it. Still, it’s not reason enough not to love it. With a brilliant cast and what looks like a promising “future” franchise, “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” should definitely be on your top must-see-list.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit will be in theaters and IMAX starting this Friday, January 17.