See this instead of "Sum of All Fears"

Rating: 7/10 (3 July 2002)

Great movie? Not by a longshot.
Ambitious? No.
Intellectually engaging? Nope.
Very original? Nah.
Does it beat the snot out of "Sum of All Fears," another spy film that isn't great, ambitious, intellectually engaging, or original either? TOTALLY.
This is because it never once pretends it's anything other than it is and doesn't waste our time suggesting it has anything to say at all about sweeping issues like "Sum" did.
***SPOILERS***
The gag is that this affable young guy who doesn't want to harm anyone has a surprising ability to both physically and mentally annihilate anyone who gets in his path, and I have to say, it kept me riveted through most of the movie.
I broke my promise to myself that I'd never again watch a show based on the premise of amnesia (it's such a lame, exhausted gimmick) because I heard this picture had a really good car chase scene and because it had Franka Potente in it -- who so appealing in "Run Lola Run." There wasn't enough of either. The car chase scene couldn't hope to rival the best of all-time for my money, the one in "To Live and Die in L.A." And there wasn't enough of Potente.
But, the movie delivered in other ways. Chief among them were the sly ways our hero would get out of a jam. The end of the last action sequence, in the stairwell, was just believable enough to have you applauding it's originality instead of bemoaning its likelihood.
And hey, what the hell else do you want from a spy thriller? It's a bunch of two-dimensional characters, who don't grow, and who go chasing around trying to find clever ways to get past each other.
I liked it.
What I can't figure out is why so many people on IMDb who gave "Sum of All Fears" a free pass seem to be dumping on unassuming little "The Bourne Identity."
Sum SUCKED.
This movie review by Erik Gloor