Why So Blu?

Jack Ryan: 5-Film Collection (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

Paravmount is really on the ball and getting some of their most well known franchises out and onto the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray format in full. Transformers, Tomb Raider, Mission: Impossible and now the Jack Ryan films (Can I get the rest of Star Trek next?). With the highly anticipated Amazon series slated to begin at the end of the month, now’s as good a time as any to revisit the political thriller series based around Tom Clancy’s most well known character. From 1990’s The Hunt for Red October to the most recent reboot attempt with Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, the films are all accounted for and getting the boost into 4K Ultra-HD video (Sorry folks, no audio or bonus upgrades here). Head on down to the bottom of this review to pre-order and add to your collection.

The Hunt For Red October 

Based on the popular Tom Clancy novel, this suspenseful movie tracks Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius as he abandons his orders and heads for the east coast of the United States. Equipped with innovative stealth technology, Ramius’ submarine, “Red October,” is virtually invisible. However, when an American sub briefly detects the Russians’ presence, CIA agent Jack Ryan sets out to determine Ramius’ motives, fearing he may launch an attack on the U.S.

The Hunt for Red October started off this Jack Ryan series of films, but kind of feels like an outlier compared to what would follow. This adaptation of the Tom Clancy novel of the same name was a massive success, so surely more would follow, but none would be as low key as this film. Its a submarine thriller whose action comes more from suspense and dialogue than it does punching and shooting. The film is a Cold War political thriller in every sense of the word.

Someone going back to the film having seen Harrison Ford’s output or even Chris Pine’s in the Jack Ryan series may find themselves “whelmed” by it major departure from those films. Heck, you see the name John McTiernan as the director (Coming off of Die Hard and Predator back-to-back) and you are likely excited to see tight quartered fisticuffs and torpedo exchanges between subs. I showed it to my sister for the first time during this review, and while she liked it, she thought it was good but “felt like a novel turned to a movie”. And yeah, I can get where she’s coming from there. The movie has aged just fine, but it may be for a more specific audience now looking and thrilled by old school filmmaking tactics as opposed to the modern general one looking for more fast cuts, shakiness and more physical altercations to break out.

Let’s look at our Jack Ryan here before we move on. Alec Baldwin is the first man to take the role. He wouldn’t return for Patriot Games due to wanting to stay committed to a Broadway production according to the production members (Baldwin denies this, hinting that he was just sort of replaced due to inner office politics). Its funny to look back on “handsome actor” era Baldwin, but he’s actually a pretty under appreciated performer of this era. This was one of his first role leading a major studio film, and he’s quite good. Baldwin brings forth a smart character that second guesses himself at every turn and is lacking about 15% confidence that keeps him from being a complete alpha male and makes him more adorable and sympathetic. He’s very good in the role and its neat to wonder what could have been for him had he continued. While I’m here, the rest of the cast in this movie is absolutely STACKED beyond belief from James Earl Jones down to a brief cameo from Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Gates McFadden and Ryan’s wife.

Video 

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Layers: BD-66

Clarity/Detail: The Hunt for Red October debuts on 4K with a native transfer, being shot on film of course. No, this isn’t the most vivid, eye-popping experience for the format. With the very nature of the setting and aesthetic of the film, that’s to be expecting. But, its has a really fine, cinematic look to it with some really strong details and a fantastic recreation and handling of the very dark environments with which the film takes place. Chalk this up as another strong output from Paramount.

Depth: Hunt has a pretty strong depth of field here, from the tight corridors of the submarines to the more open board rooms in the government offices, you’ll see a good separation and push back from characters to their backgrounds. Movements are smooth and cinematic with no motion distortions noticed.

Black Levels: HDR really pumps in here with the many dark rooms and overall black nature of the film. It features really good saturation in the dimly lit submarine, impressively holding on to details and textures within.

Color Reproduction: The film is full of military uniforms and very industrial looking interiors of submarines, which all give a natural feel. What really pops here in this mix are the display screens and monitors. The digital counters all come on extra bright and there are some great glows. Also, the red filter frequently used on the submarine doesn’t bleed and is able to handle clarity and definition on the people and objects in the frame.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and maintain consistency from start to finish of the film. Facial features are impressively defined and recognizable from any reason given distance, be it close up or a nice medium shot between two characters.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, English Audio Description, German 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Castilian) 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Latin America) 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Japanese 2.0 Dolby Digital, Portguese Mono Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Arabic, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, German, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin America), French, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Slovak, Finnish, Swedish, Thai

Dynamics: A sound upgrade to Atmos would have fit and been really cool for Red October, however, the 5.1 mix that is retain still is a thoughtful and fun one. Its pretty active and does make plenty good use of all speakers in a well balanced and layered interpretation.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: Much of the boom from this comes from underwater, machine sounds and some attacks as well as the score.

Surround Sound Presentation: All speakers here are thought out, work together and put for their own contributions to bring things to life. Submarines travel accurately and with some fun across the screen as does a helicopter in the middle of the film. Bullets also ricochet in the rear and echo into some of the nearby channels. Its a pretty good mix, though I wonder how much more consuming it could have been given the opportunity to have overhead channels.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear and crisp, present and plenty audible with no loss of definition in louder, more active sequences.

Patriot Games 

When former CIA agent Jack Ryan hampers an IRA terrorist attack in London, he kills one of the terrorists. The dead man’s brother, another member of the group named Sean Miller, is arrested but quickly escapes. Vowing revenge against Ryan, Miller travels to the United States, where he forces Ryan’s wife and daughter  into a car accident that badly injures them. This convinces Ryan to rejoin the CIA in order to track down Miller.

Gears shift, casting changes and Tom Clancy wants his name removed from Patriot Games. But honestly, this film was a nice side step and a terrific political thriller/90s action movie hybrid. Yes, the story gets to be a bit personal to varying degrees of silly, but damn if the performers don’t make it ridiculously entertaining. The film is tight, moves and holds up in entertainment value, while giving Jack Ryan a more popcorn element feature to what he could offer on the big screen.

Phillip Noyce takes over director duties on the film and I gotta say, I never respected his work on this one enough until this viewing. The movie isn’t just fun, its pretty well executed. Noyce has a fantastic vision for it and knows where to place the camera for maximum effect and excellent suspense. From night vision sequences to an assassination attempt in public, Noyce can really get your heart racing in different ways. He’s also pretty good at making the dramatic scenes really work and build intrigue with more than just talking. I don’t want to say the policy/political jargon is dumbed down or anything, but its much easier to follow and doesn’t ever try and make the plot sound more complex than the simple nature from which it is.

Harrison Ford steps into the role of Jack Ryan and the man just exudes star power. Baldwin was terrific previously, but Ford just manages to take things to another level. And its weird as Ford is an actor that primarily does different takes on himself, but they all come across so different in subtle ways. And his Jack Ryan is just as believable behind a desk as he is wielding a pistol. There never is an awkward transition. Its full fledged star power. And without Ford’s turns in this role, Jack Ryan doesn’t become a household name or even one with which you refer to this franchise by. The Hunt for Red October was never a “Jack Ryan movie” until after Ford’s turn, if you catch my drift. That movie is much more Sean Connery than you remember it for being Ryan.

Video 

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Layers: BD-66

Clarity/Detail: Patriot Games makes its way to the Ultra-HD format as a native 4K transfer. Once again, like Red October, the film has a very straight business look to it as it operates within government confines and underground terrorist cells. We get more daytime sequences in this movie, giving some sharper zest to it and revealing a bit more touch in details and texture. Considering the type of film we’re given, they’ve done a pretty terrific and noticeable job jumping formats.

Depth: Some good big outdoors shots that really improve spacing and give us a better sense of depth all around. Action in motion looks quite seamless, smooth and cinematic feeling with no distortion issues present with rapid movements at all.

Black Levels: Blacks are natural and able to become more saturated and give to the realistic look of the film. Details hold on a lot better than the standard Blu-ray and even reveal more follicles, patterns or textures than before.

Color Reproduction: Once again, colors are rather plain-jane, but look rather strengthened in their boldness. And the HDR boost comes in the form of monitors, displays and counters. Fire does prove to be a standout here and the night vision scene has a nice appeal to it and doesn’t go overboard.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and maintain their look throughout, no matter the environment or lighting. Facial features and details down to the cuts and bruises all come through clear as day from any reasonable distance shown

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, English Audio Description, Czech 2.0 Dolby Digital, German 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Castilian) 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Latin America) 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Japanese 2.0 Dolby Digital, Polish Mono Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Arabic, Malaysian, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin America), French, Hindu, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Hungarian, Mandarin, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Romanian, Slovak, Finnish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish

Dynamics: Patriot Games retains is very good 5.1 track from the previous standard Blu-ray release. This is a fun mix that really helps dictate the action to the viewer, proving to be really fun. Its well balanced and the score sounds pretty lovely in here. I would have loved an Atmos reworking like everyone else, but this makes for a really good time at the end of the day.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: Fire roaring, cars crashing, glass bursting, guns blasting and more all get a pump from the subwoofer. It could be a bit stronger, but this works well enough.

Surround Sound Presentation: Speaker interplay and travel is pretty fun here. Bullets whip around speaker to speaker and everything flows pretty accurate to what you’d want from this movie. Environments are handled quite well, giving as best feeling as it could be to have an idea of being there.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are loud, clear and crisp and hold on strong and prominent in a quiet office or during a loud shootout.

Clear And Present Danger 

Agent Jack Ryan becomes acting deputy director of the CIA when Admiral Greer is diagnosed with cancer. When an American businessman, and friend of the president, is murdered on a yacht, Ryan starts discovering links between the man and drug dealers. As CIA agent John Clark is sent to Colombia to kill drug kingpins in retaliation, Ryan must fight through multiple cover-ups to figure out what happened and who’s responsible.

Clear and Present Danger was the first Jack Ryan film I ever saw and still remains my favorite to this day. It was the first time as so called “big film for adults” thrilled me. Some friends were going, I was with them and I obliged and happy I did. I’ve long been a fan of Harrison Ford and he’s a prime reason I was down with checking it out. And he delivered. And for this movie, I really enjoy that his Jack Ryan they show us is letting us know that he’s not the “action man” we could have mistaken him for in the last movie. That was a personal circumstance that forced his hand into having to be of that aggression.

In Clear and Present Danger, for much of the movie, Jack Ryan is figuring out some mysterious corruption and involved in conversation and inner government shenanigans for a lot of the movie. And when they do throw him into the action, he’s only at a level where he needs to be. Most of the “action stuff” is given to Willem DaFoe’s character of “Clark”. Ryan is the guy there to do the talking and scheming while DaFoe can handle a gun as well as the cartel’s goons.

One of my favorite action sequences from the 90s actually comes right from this movie. I’m talking about the ambush of the FBI director. Noyce continues his impressive use of set ups and establishing geography. This bit of paranoia and aggression comes at a surprise and you feel the hysteria. Its over quicker than I remember, but it still pack itself a whallop and makes the film (Which is terrific) worth seeing for it along.

Video 

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Layers: BD-66

Clarity/Detail: Clear and Present Danger transfers natively to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray in the present with a nice clear picture in the present. No dangers to be found (Okay, I’ll see myself out). But really, the details and sharpness of the images in these movies continue to get better as we go along. This one did offer a little bit more than the others in terms of color due to a couple placed visited. Its a nice step up from Patriot Games which also look pretty terrific for the types of movies we are getting here on the 4K UHD format.

Depth:  Depth of field is particularly strong on this one. There are some scenes out in the forest with the covert guys that really look pretty three dimensional at times. The camera movements are all confident and smooth as they swoop around and pull of some great coverage in the film.

Black Levels: Blacks are once again natural, showcasing some nice shadow and keeping all the nuances and details intact with dark areas, nighttime and clothing/surfaces. No crushing witnessed at all.

Color Reproduction: Colors are once again natural and explosions/fire becomes the HDR showoff. However, we do visit some places that have neon lights that look pretty lovely under the circumstances. In short, expect what we’ve had from the others with a pinch more dazzle in a few scenes.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and consistent from start to finish. Cuts, dried blood, stubble, lip texture and some pores in a few close ups are all apparent from any reasonable distance in the film.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, English Audio Description, German 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Castilian) 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Latin America) 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Japanese 2.0 Dolby Digital, Polish Mono Dolby Digital, Portuguese Mono Dolby Digital, Russian 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Arabic, Malaysian, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin America), French, Hindu, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Hungarian, Mandarin, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Romanian, Slovak, Finnish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish

Dynamics: Clear and Present Danger features a pretty rockin’ 5.1 mix. Action sequence soar around and land quite well, putting you in the middle of pandemonium. Its part of a nice balance that really lets the score flourish but never takes away from a solid vocal track that feels nice and everpresent. Once again, not Atmos, but I found this 5.1 mix to be very sufficient and tops of the first 3 films so far.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: Some good booms in the subwoofer from rocket launchers, missiles landing, machines guns blasting and some good score beats.

Surround Sound Presentation: Speaker arrangement is full realized. Motion goes front to back and side to side with good accuracy and precision. Individual speakers get important assignments to bring things to life. Look no further than the caravan ambush sequence for what this track is made of.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear crisp, plenty of good attention to diction captured here as well.

The Sum Of All Fears 

Based on Tom Clancy’s novel, this espionage thriller tracks a sinister plot to draw the United States and Russia into World War III. When the Russian president suddenly dies, world tension escalates. Coupled with missing nuclear scientists and the threat of a nuclear detonation on United States soil, young CIA analyst Jack Ryan must uncover who is behind the conspiracy.

The Sum of All Fears begins what will be the first of 3 reboot attempts at taking the series in a “young Jack Ryan” direction. Rather than carry on as Patriot Games had to Red October (In a sort of Manhunter to Silence of the Lambs way), they decided to go back and tell a “first adventure” story for Jack Ryan. Mind you, this is 3 years before Batman Begins made this the cool thing to do and a year before the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake came out and started making it cool to remake everything. Jack Ryan was apparently ahead of its time here.

Ben Affleck takes the baton from Harrison Ford. And yeah, he’s no Ford (No one every really has been or probably ever will be). In terms of the character, Affleck feels a bit off from what we’ve seen before. He has a slight confidence or cocky edge to him that he really can’t hide to well here in Ryan. He’s not bad, but he just doesn’t feel like he’s going to become the character we already knew three films prior. Baldwin even embodied a similar feeling to the character as Ford did so they almost were a bit fluid. Here, its a bit different.

One of the big stealers from the film is Liev Schreiber as Clark this time around. He’s so good, that around the time the film came out, there were murmurs that he would be spun off into his own series. Alas, that never happened, but we doe get him on his own side adventure that is just as compelling, if not moreso, than was Affleck Jack Ryan is getting to the bottom of.

Jack Ryan would sit on the shelf for 12 years following this film. Which, its sort of odd, as the film was a hit and duplicated its budget domestically and topped off some more on the global stage. They never hurried up a sequel or tried to keep this iteration going. It was the first film in the franchise to open to majority poor reviews, but the money was what usually talks. Maybe they thought it smart to take the money and run or wait as it seems. Affleck was a one and done (As everyone but Ford in the Ryan role has been), and Jack Ryan would stand pat.

Video 

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Layers: BD-66

Clarity/Detail: The Sum of All Fears debuts on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray natively to some pretty solid results. You’ll notice right away (If watching them in succession in close proximity) that this image instantly jumps with its colors, sharpness and clarity from the other films. Its a lot less “smokey” looking than before and with some bolder colors, especially on the skin tones. Previously, the Blu-ray features some less than positive responses on its appearance, this should be a nice big improvement over that.

Depth:  There is good separation between characters, objects and their environments. Movements are natural, free and without any sort of distortion.

Black Levels: Blacks are deep and natural, never really taking away from details. In fact, its actually really impressive in helping to keep the image looking quite good with no crushing occurring at all.

Color Reproduction: Colors are stronger in this film than others. Probably due to it being more modern. This one’s natural features some rich reds and the like on outfits and whatnot. Explosions, fire and the like obvious see some good HDR use here, but we also get lamps, display lights, car lights and many other little bits of glow that populate much more than we have seen in the set so far.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and consistent from opening to closing of the film. They feel a lot more flush and full than the previous 3 movies in the set. You also get a real good definition of facial details in any given distance.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, English Audio Description, German 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Castilian) 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Latin America) 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, French (Canada) 2.0 Dolby Digital, Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Polish 2.0 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital, Russian 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Danish, German, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin America), French, French (Canada), Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Finnish, Swedish

Dynamics: The Sum of All Fears features a pretty solid 5.1 mix that gets the job more than done. The score sounds really good and present in this mix. Its a deeper mix, but the blend of effects, vocals and music never gets in the way of one another. When things get loud, they get loud, but it can also be a bit quieter in the quiet scenes than you’d expect it to be. Overall, this is just fine and works well enough. An improvement would have been welcome, but alas, we get what likely was the original theatrical presentation.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: This one does boom more than its comrades. Explosions, engines rumbling and the score a few things that really get things humming.

Surround Sound Presentation: Being a more “modern” (Haha, its 16 years old), this mix is realized and features accurate and good sound travel and individual speaker usage. Volume placement is done well, too.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear and crisp, if not a hair lower than most.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit 

To his friends and loved ones, young Jack Ryan appears to be an ordinary executive; however, he has secretly worked for the CIA for years. Ryan was originally brought in to crunch global data, but when he uncovers a carefully planned scheme to crash the U.S. economy and spark global chaos, he becomes the only man with the skills to stop it. Now a full operative, Ryan finds himself caught between his secretive handler, his clueless fiancee and a brilliant Russian leader.

By all means, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a pretty generic film, thriving on playing it safe and excelling in mediocrity. Its the kind of film that thinks its smarter than your average spy/secret agent film, but is very kind of “bro smart”. Much of this movie when its at its best is “Okay”. The acting, the action, directing, the plot…none of it is inventing the wheel, but everyone is just sorta doing their thing and getting it done.

I’ve written about the film before, and its not a film that there’s much to write about to begin with. You can find my original thoughts HERE. This time around, I wasn’t into it as much as I was the first time, but I’ll still stand by what I said. While it does suffer from everything I talked about, I’m actually kinda just fine with this movie. It sucks as a Jack Ryan film, and as a also-ran wannabe Bourne movie, its not great either, but its sitll just kind of a good crummy, quick action movie.

As far as Jack Ryan goes, I like Chris Pine, but what’s on paper and in this film is not him at all. Granted, we have our second attempt at reintroducing him, this time going before the before. And that’s understandable as he’d been away from the cinema going populace for 12 years. I’ve always seen Jack Ryan as the guy who head up the operation, calls the shots, argues for the people on a mission and always reluctantly has to go into the field or becomes apart of physical action as there is nowhere else to turn (Which, yeah, happens in every movie, but you catch me here). This Ryan is much to proactive and seems willing and hungry for the big car chase or fist fight. This character was never Jason Bourne, Ethan Hunt or James Bond. He’s Jack Ryan, and that’s why we went to those older movies.

Video 

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Layers: BD-66

Clarity/Detail: To no surprise, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is the most impressive of the bunch when it comes to the 4K Ultra-HD presentation. It has the caveat of being newer and looking much more slick and polished. The film is the only not native 4K in the set, as it was finished with a 2K DI. The already impressive Blu-ray sees a very good upgrade with much more natural black, better color saturation and a nice, noticeable jump in details. This isn’t anyone’s favorite, but like the standard Blu-ray had going for it, the 4K Ultra-HD also has an impressive presentation that makes it more enjoyable than it probably is.

Depth:  The film features some really terrific exterior shots that help a character look a piece of a big surrounding area with good pushback going on. Movements are natural and smooth with no distortions via jittering or blurring occurring.

Black Levels: Blacks are handled quite well, very deep and natural. Some of the shadowy and darker scenes look quite lovely here and Brannagh’s vision outstretches nicely. Details on darker things and place hold very well. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Colors are strong here. Some of the autumn forest scenes have a beautiful saturation and seeing all the different shades and leaf colors really come to life. Blue is a stronger color as the film’s aesthetic tends to lean on it and there are some lovely red doors and curtains in the hotel hallways. HDR comes into play quite a bit with color depth but also in the glow of an explosion or computer and phone displays as well as store lights and lamps.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are really flush and natural throughout the whole film. Facial details have seen a nice uptick in texture and things like freckles, cuts, bruises, wrinkles, moles lip texture and more.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 7.1 DTS-HD MA, English Audio Description, German 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Castilian) 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Latin America) 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, French (Canada) 5.1 Dolby Digital, Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Japanese 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital, Russian 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, German, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin America), French, French (Canada), Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Slovak, Finnish, Swedish

Dynamics:  And we have reference quality audio as well!  This 7.1 track blew me away.  It had an amazing balance of score, dialogue and effects.  The home theater experience on it is tremendous.  There was a great variation of volume and area with the sound effects on it.  Its likely the best surround audio I’ve heard all year.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension:  Oh yes, perfectly saturated and used throughout.  Cars hitting the gas, gun shots, heads pounding into sinks, there’s use for your subwoofer aplenty.

Surround Sound Presentation:  All channels are accounted for an used well.  You get action in the rear and the sides.  The front speakers also have some tremendous interplay.

Dialogue Reproduction:  Dialogue is clean, clear and crisp.  Perfect volume and clarity.

Extras 

Jack Ryan: 5-Film Collection comes is a 10-disc set that comes with all 5 movies Blu-ray counterparts and a digital copy of each film. All commentaries appear on the 4K Ultra-HD discs, but all featurettes and other bonus material are on the standard Blu-ray discs. There are no new bonus features, the Blu-ray discs are the same as are already available.

The Hunt for Red October

Audio Commentary

• By Director John McTiernan

Beneath The Surface (SD, 29:00) 

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1:41)

Patriot Games

Patriot Games Up Close (SD, 25:14) 

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:31)

Clear And Present Danger

Behind The Danger (SD, 26:34)

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:39)

The Sum Of All Fears

Audio Commentary

• By Director Phil Alden Robinson and Cinematographer John Lindley
• By Director Phil Alden Robinson and Novelist Tom Clancy

The Making of The Sum of All Fears (SD, 29:55)

Creating Reality: The Visual Effects of The Sum of All Fears (SD, 27:48)

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:24)

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Audio Commentary

• By Director Kenneth Branagh and Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura

Jack Ryan: The Smartest Guy In The Room (HD, 13:37) 

Sir Kenneth Branagh: The Tsar Of Shadow Recruit (HD, 9:49) .

Jack Ryan: A Thinking Man Of Action (HD, 5:19) 

Old Enemies Return (HD, 21:13)

Deleted And Extended Scenes with Optional Commentary  By Kenneth Branagh And Lorenzodi Bonaventura (HD, 5:03)

Summary 

The Jack Ryan films are probably a bit understated as far as big time or popular franchise wheelhouse goes. But, its a solid bunch of fun, especially the original three films. The attempts to go younger and reset had various degrees of faults and praises, but managed to at the bottom line to be entertaining. Paramount brings them to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray with some terrific upgrade in their picture quality. Everything else about them remains the same, however. I imagine this is a nice pick up for the 4K collector’s and major Jack Ryan enthusiasts, with most probably waiting in the wings to upgrade when the set gets in a Black Friday-ish price range.