JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT (Rated PG-13)

The late Tom Clancy’s prolific novels about the ambitious CIA analyst Jack Ryan, who rises through the ranks in the intelligence community, has created a continuous thread of movies where the actors are as interchangeable as the ones in the James Bond series.

Arguably, Jack Ryan has much in common with the famous fictional British secret agent. Men with bright minds to match their physical prowess, they go about the serious business of saving the world from tyranny in its many forms.

For Jack Ryan, the enemy typically involved the Cold War-era Soviet Union and the fight was against the “evil empire.”

Just when you thought the geopolitical battles didn’t involve Russia any longer, along comes Vladimir Putin as the strongman of the East.

What with the recent debacles involving Edward Snowden and the vacillation over the Syrian civil war, Putin has stepped into the breach on the world stage, and certainly not for the better.

Now arriving in theaters is the updated version of Clancy’s hero, for “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” taps into the modern zeitgeist as it relates to the increasing tensions of late between Russia and the United States.

The modern Jack Ryan (played by Chris Pine) taps into the post-9/11 sensibilities in a big way. We first see Jack as a graduate student at the London School of Economics on the day of the terrorist attack on American soil.

Committed to serving his country, Jack joins the Marines and becomes a hero during a mission in Afghanistan, where he is injured saving the lives of two of his fellow soldiers following a rocket attack on their helicopter.

Following a long recovery stint at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he meets his future wife Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley), Jack is recruited by the mysterious Commander Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner) to join the CIA as an analyst.

The CIA agent’s first job is undercover work at a major Wall Street financial firm, where his assignment is to track monetary transactions that could be linked to terrorist groups and foreign enemies.

Years of toiling in financial intelligence yield promising results when Jack figures that Russian oligarch Viktor Cheverin (Kenneth Branagh) is engineering a geopolitical plot to destroy the American economy with a currency dump combined with a terrorist attack.

The spy business becomes operational for Jack when he is sent to Moscow to poke around in Cheverin’s financial empire. A rude encounter in his hotel room throws Jack into full action-hero mode, requiring his old Marine training to kick in with a vengeance.

Almost immediately Jack finds himself in the thick of Russian villainy, with bad guys that make the old KGB agents look like schoolboys at a dance party. For his part, the complicated Cheverin is a drug-addicted psychopath with a burning hatred for the West.

Things get even more interesting when Jack’s fiancée Cathy shows up in Moscow, harboring suspicions that his erratic behavior may have something to do with covering up infidelity. She is relieved to find out that his secret is that of being an American agent.

The plot requires a breach of Cheverin’s palatial headquarters so that Jack may retrieve the computer files that would be essential to thwarting the plot to undermine America’s financial stability.

One of the best scenes in the movie is the uneasy dinner meeting with Cheverin at the fancy restaurant across the street from his office. It’s a battle of wits where the stakes are high.

Unlikely as it may seem, Cathy becomes game for teasing deception to keep Cheverin preoccupied with her brainy conversation about Russian poets while flirting so boldly with her Russian host as to keep his mind off Jack’s convenient absence to walk off a love spat.

Apparently, the ruthless Russian financier is no match for the seductive wiles of an American temptress. But then, Cheverin has a weakness for heroin, fine dining and attractive females.

The tension continues when the action shifts to the United States, where a terrorist cell activated by Cheverin is going about the nasty business of setting in motion a bombing plot set to target Wall Street.

Luckily for Western Civilization, Jack Ryan knows how to take down the plot, and at one point, he’s chasing the bad guys on a motorcycle with the panache of Jason Bourne.

To be sure, Jack Ryan shares the action traits of well-known secret agents, but Chris Pine is bringing a modern sensibility to a pensive hero who combines brains with the brawn.

“Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” has plenty of entertaining diversions to show promise for a contemporary reboot of the Tom Clancy franchise. Chris Pine registers the right amount of charisma for the role. With any luck, we’ll see him again soon, maybe taking on the Red Chinese.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.