Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse Parent Guide

When a CIA-backed op in Syria goes sideways, Navy SEAL John Kelly (Michael B. Jordan) and his team find themselves in more trouble than they can handle. Russian affiliated mercenaries turn up in their homes, killing most of Kelly’s team and his pregnant wife, Pam (Lauren London). Determined on revenge, Kelly operates outside the law to track down the surviving members of the Russian hit squad. But the closer he gets, the more he realizes that the cause of his problems may not be in Moscow, but back in D.C. With the help of fellow SEAL Karen Greer (Jodie Turner-Smith) and CIA operative Robert Ritter (Jamie Bell), Kelly will find the truth…no matter what.

Tom Clancy is one of those authors who is really fun to read when you’re about 14 and then drops off sharply as you age. Post-adolescence, Clancy feels like a paranoid military fanatic who has an excellent grasp on military terminology and technology and almost no understanding of how real human beings talk. Film adaptations of his books usually struggle with the same problem, and that’s a big problem in Without Remorse.

Despite the script, Michael B. Jordan does his darndest to bring real human emotions to the story, but it doesn’t make much difference. The plot marches relentlessly on towards its increasingly implausible conflicts and political conclusions, and it ends up steamrolling Jordan’s work along the way. I realize that action thrillers aren’t usually emotionally deep or poignant, but this movie is a particularly low point.

On the upside, Without Remorse is a very mild R-rated film. There is minimal extreme profanity which is downright bizarre for a film like this, no nudity or sexual content, no drug use, and no excessively graphic violence (although there’s plenty of sanitized violent action). I’m frankly a little surprised that it’s rated “R” in the first place, since I’ve seen worse in PG-13 films. If you’ve got some action-hungry teenagers, this should be fine for them to watch.

Frankly, this film could have no objectionable content whatsoever and it would still be a bland, formulaic, fairly soulless trek through action movie clichés. While Kelly is supposed to be, well, without remorse, he’s also been written without character, without interest, and without any personal development – none of which is going to make my job any easier when the sequel they were baiting in the mid-credits scene comes out. I can’t wait to sit through another one of these 90 minute wastes of digital film.