After the tragic events of September 11, a film like The Sum of All Fears could be either poignant or superfluous. Tom Clancy’s Peter Pan alter ego, CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck), must prevent a covert nuclear strike in America and the onset of World War III. The only problem is that Clancy’s new world order is woefully behind the times; there’s no terrorist network, no Middle East crisis, just a rekindling of the Cold War with upstart Russians.

Clancy’s first book-to-film, The Hunt for Red October, was well cast and well acted, and it maintained its suspense despite the foregone conclusion. Since then, the adaptations have become increasingly banal and preposterous, with The Sum of All Fears representing the sum of all absurdities. As Ryan, Affleck is wet behind the ears and seems incapable of the heroics his character must undertake. The nice-guy thing goes on far too long, and when the shit hits the fan, a sense of urgency never registers on his face. Director Phil Alden Robinson tries to keep things engaging by frenetically cutting from US command post to Kremlin war room, but his efforts, as well as those of the majestic Morgan Freeman as a presidential adviser, are wasted in this bombastic dud