Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

This is an action movie first and foremost.  Anyone looking for something deeper should turn away.  However, as spy thrillers go, this is a bit of a cut above, perhaps owing to it's director, Kenneth Branagh and a solid cast of Chris Pine as Jack Ryan, Kiera Knightly as his fiance and reluctant co-conspirator, and Kevin Costner as the man who recruits Ryan for the CIA.

The character Jack Ryan was created by Tom Clancy, but this movie breaks from the previous Jack Ryan movies in that the story line is not based on a book and with a new portrayal of the character.  There are the inevitable improbable paths that the  story line goes down, there are elements of a good thriller.  Branagh makes a convincing bad guy vis-a-vis Chris Pine's pretty squeaky clean, brave, and terribly smart good guy.  The prevalence of U.S. surveillance capabilities in modern day Russia is perhaps overstating the actual case, but maybe that is naive of me.  The action propels you safely to the end of the movie, and overall it is enjoyable if not all that deep.