I am going to give away a major plot point of "The Sum of All Fears" because I don't want you to see the movie. In the mid- section of the film a nuclear bomb goes off at a crowded football stadium in Baltimore, Maryland, killing thousands of innocent people. For the next few minutes, at least, the film is harrowingly realistic with the cataclysmic event leaving a deafening roar all about those who survive, those who are lucky enough to be some miles away from the blast. (It reminded me of that nuclear holocaust mini-series on TV from when I was a kid. Was it called "The Last Day?")

This film is repulsive. It's is sickening. It is far too soon after 9/11 for a major film distributor like Paramount to unleash a big-budgeted, special-effects laden film with such a repulsive and sickening sequence on the American public. We are nowhere near ready. This is an unconscionable act. Shame on them.

For what it's worth, "The Sum of All Fears" is a piece of shit anyway. The script is insipid and written at a fourth- grade level. The acting can be quite good but the plot is so expansive and so convoluted that even the actors cannot make head nor tale of it. It's obvious from the beginning that the film is going to make no sense as the opening subtitles, which tell something of a war in 1973 in the Middle East or something, are indecipherable. I couldn't figure out what the fuck was going on. I suppose if your a big Tom Clancy fan (God help you) or some sort of ardent C-Span and CNN viewer you might be able to figure out what the hell is going on. I couldn't. It doesn't matter anyway; we're just here to see Ben Affleck look handsome.

While Morgan Freeman, James Cromwell (look kids the farmer from "Babe" is President), Phillip Baker Hall, Leiv Schrieber, and Ron Rifkin pretty much stand around and do nothing (okay, they are apparently trying to crack the plot), Affleck gets to be Superman. Well, he runs through fire, anyway. Affleck may be considered the new Jack Ryan to some, he is really merely a action figure here. His back story is so simplistic and so inane that it actually echoes his story from "Pearl Harbor." Yep, that's how idiotic and mindless this film is. It's "Pearl Harbor" with a nuclear bomb explosion and no Josh Hartnett. Who would want to see that?

Written by hacks, directed by a hack, acted by talented actors only there to pick up a paycheck, "The Sum of All Fears" is a horrible film. Worse yet, it's a unnecessary reminder of just how horrific and frightening the world was on 9/11. I don't know about you, but I don't need to be reminded of that just yet. I don't think the American people need films where terrorism kills hundreds of thousands of people right now, even if the good guys eventually win. What we want is pure, unadulterated fantasy. What we want is something to take our minds of the real world for a few hours. What we want is entertainment. Not shitty, ludicrous, armchair politico hoo-haw.

Paramount would be wise to pull this film and put it on a shelf and let it sit there for a very, very long time.

Note:

The print I saw was a work print without finished soundtrack, completed effects shots, or final edit concluded. There was also no end credits.

Directed by Phil Alden Robinson. Written by Paul Attanasio and Daniel Pyne. Based on the book by Tom Clancy, who is listed as Executive Producer here.

Although, I believe, this is supposed to be a prequel of sorts to "Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger," it takes place in 2002 (do the math) with Affleck apparently playing the same character as Harrison Ford yet, obviously, much younger. Affleck plays a neophyte CIA agent and no explanation of his this flaw in chronological logic is suggested.

Clancy is from Baltimore.

Report Card Script: F Acting: C- Cinematography\Lighting: N/A Special Effects\Make Up: N/A Music: N/A Final Grade: F

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