Jack Reacher

There was a time—let's call it "The 80s"—when action movies didn't need CGI cheats, shaky-cam and ADD-editing to entertain us. They also didn't have to destroy ten city blocks, have a "clever" hook or feel the need to tack on a social message to justify their carnage. No, all they needed was a reason for some good old steak and potatoes action and a star to anchor it all. 2012's Jack Reacher has these qualities in spades.

Maybe this won't appeal to the eGeneration who need to have their senses constantly bombarded, but for the rest of us, Jack Reacher is a solid bit of retro-refreshment.

James Barr (Joseph Sikora), a former military sniper, is in jail for killing 5-people and says he is innocent. He asks for ex-Army MP Officer, Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise). But Reacher knew Barr in Iraq and is out to prove him guilty. Hmmm……should be a slam dunk.

It's not often that we get a good thriller along with a good mystery as well, but that is what we have here. Why would Barr ask for Jack Reacher if Reacher knew what Barr did in Iraq? Also, what was the purpose of Barr killing 5-people who had no connection to each other? Assistant DA Helen (Rosamund Pike) asks Reacher to help prevent Barr from getting the death penalty. But, we also had some good fight scenes and an exciting car chase. Let the games begin.

This gets somewhat talky in the beginning as Helen and Reacher analyze what had happened. But, we hang on every word because we, too, need to know things. All this sounded like the dialogue was dubbed in, but I think the microphones were just too close to the characters and this made it seem as if the dialogue was dubbed in. To be honest it did look like Rosamund Pike had weak knees around Tom Cruise, but the script wouldn't go here. It just looked that way to me.

The supporting cast of bad guys was good as was Detective Emerson (David Oyelowo), assigned to the Barr case. Robert Duvall comes in as a retired USMC Gunnery Sgt, Gunny Cash, who does a masterful job as the owner of a gun range and inserts some humor as he deals with Reacher.

Over all this was very good. But, I did have the feeling something was missing. Maybe it needed a better ending as this one was kind of weak for such a good story.

Maybe Tom Cruise is leaving his Mission Impossible movies behind and is now centering on another action hero: Jack Reacher, who is described as someone who seems to only wear the clothes on his back, doesn't care about the law and is only concerned with one thing: justice, and the way he goes about achieving it may shock you. Hey, Lee Child, the author of the Jack Reacher series wrote about 15-books. See? (8/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes, not much

Flanked by plush production values and an interesting supporting cast (including Werner Herzog as a baddie), Tom Cruise investigates at his leisure an apparent spree killing treading the mean streets as a laconic investigator after whom the film is named like Steve McQueen in 'Bullitt' (which also had Robert Duvall in it); and both prove hot stuff behind the wheel of a car.

Cruise has been shot throughout so he looks as tall as or taller than most of the other men in the film; so one admires him for agreeing to willowy Rosamund Pike as his leading lady.

I have read all the Jack Reacher's books (at least the novels and short stories written by Lee Child) so I knew the plot pretty well and it is well rendered for most of the movie. The first half is spot on, sharp to deliver the action like Lee Child: with a lot of thought but few words.

Then, for some reason it strays from this really fine rendition. My guess is that they couldn't cope with the overwhelming violence of Jack Reacher's stories. They did not want something too off-putting for the masses since Tom Cruise was supposed to bring in a larger crowd. So why did they chose this one story in the first place? Obviously they dug the beginning, the premise and it shows: it is the one thing that is perfectly adapted. But, hello, this is a story which starts with a mass shooting! Certainly the worst kind of terror attack you can show when you specifically focus on the doomed victims in the cross-hairs of the sniper's sight...

I am not a big fan of Tom Cruise and casting him as the imposing silent square-jawed Jack Reacher was definitely baffling. I don't mind much about the size, that is definitely in the realm of creative license for the adapters. Now you can only stretch the adaptation so far without losing the concentrated spirit of the original material. So the real problem is that Tom Cruise always wants to flash his smile, to be funny and agreeable at some point. But Jack Reacher is above all an introverted loner, he does not display his emotions when he is hurt by some bad guy's actions: he dutilfully registers this and takes the steps towards some retribution.

That was the real challenge of bringing Jack Reacher to life, not betraying his original inner strength but making him likable... wild and sexy. In this adaptation of One Shot I cannot understand how they could underuse Rosamund Pike to make her play a frigid attorney whereas Reacher absolutely needs some kind of a delicately veiled lascivous sidekick. Instead we get a scene that is fine for Tom Cruise but totally at odds with the Jack Reacher character where he takes a step to seduce a girl that is basically not sufficiently attracted. Here they miss the mark big time.

Then you get the fight in the bathroom that is comical, which is ok except that it shows Reacher at a disadvantage. That was certainly dumb to have the great Jack Reacher being taken by surprise by two dimwit thugs.

Jack Reacher as Frank Bullitt

Now this is icebox logic, I reckon. Where the movie actually starts losing it for me is with the stupid car chase (Jack Reacher does not like to drive, isn't that an interesting plot device?). Then Reacher doesn't team up with the attorney and does alone to the shooting range. It is great to have Robert Duvall but well... that is a setup that does jettison the fantastic ending in the book. Instead we get some run-of-the-mill shoot-out in a quarry that sorely reminds you of all these movies that ended up behind schedule and out of budget when it was time to wrap it up.

Really a pity that they would show so much energy and talent at the beginning and then got lazy or tired or something to just dish out something that does not come together as a Jack Reacher adventure.

And confirming this, yes it is getting even worse till the very end with that final moaning of the sniper after Jack Reacher is eventually off to a new destination. Almost as if they had brought in another director with his own writer midway through a shoot in sequence.

Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) is the tale of a very astute ex-military policeman. The army training came in quite handy as he digs into the evidence of a heinous crime that turns out to be not at all what it seems to be on the surface. I was surprised at how funny the dialogue in this film was, it is definitely not a comedy, but the sarcastic and comedic one-liners kept coming, even in situations that were completely devoid of a humorous setting there was some very amusing conversation. There was even a scene in which Reacher is attacked in a bathroom that had me cracking up at the bumbling bad guys. The comedy was heightened even further with the old codger Cash (Robert Duvall). Mr. Duvall always delivers a convincing performance, same here. As with any film that features Mr. Cruise the expectation is that it will be fast paced and very entertaining, same here. The only thing missing was his trademark sprint to or after something or anything. I've just come to expect to see him running, really running but we are getting older. The trailer is the only kind that I like, the ones that do not give away the whole movie. It shows that Reacher is bad a$$ without playing out every aspect of the story. David Oyelowo (Emerson) is one to watch, he is building an impressive resume and it is easy to see why because whenever he portrays a character he is that character. When he played a pilot in Red Tails, I totally believed he could fly a plane. When he was the head of a company experimenting on Apes, I was again thoroughly convinced and I believed every aspect of his being a police detective. One of the best car chase scenes that I've seen lately was in this film. There were so many attributes of this film that I liked, including the sexual tension between Reacher and Helen Ronin (Rosamund Pike) that I will just sum it up by saying. Everything just seemed to be genuine and authentic, even though I know that the fights are staged they looked logistically correct, but Steven Segal did come to mind. I liked that the film had a legitimate beginning and end, even if there are subsequent Jack Reacher tales to follow, there was no gaping wide open door of a final scene leaving the audience wondering 'What's up with that?!?'. But I do hope there are sequels, at least one. I give it a green light