Jack Reacher, based on Lee Child’s novels (use that word loosely), is an incredibly mediocre action film despite its’ impressive cast and director. I’m not sure why Cruise feels he needs a new franchise at this stage in his life, but this is an obvious attempt to start one. To be honest, I didn’t know they still made action films like this. It’s an exercise in loner machismo fantasy, which I’m all for in principle, but falls incredibly short of the mark. Remember Stallone’s ‘Cobra’ or Schwarzenegger’s ‘Commando’ back in the 80’s? Well, it’s like those, but lacking the in depth character development (I tried to infuse that sentence with sarcasm in case you missed it).
Jack Reacher plays an ex-military investigator who drops off the grid after becoming disgruntled. He wanders from adventure to adventure showing up only when needed as no one is able to find him. Owning only the clothes on his back, but surprisingly clean cut, he shows up during a crisis and is able to do what he wants without consequence because ‘he has nothing to lose’. He is self-proclaimed brilliant with an eidetic memory and is instantly able to change the course of an investigation by bursting into any police captain’s office.
In this case, Reacher is attracted to a case where a gunman caught after a random shooting spree turns out to be a former military sniper Reacher tried to put away in Iraq yet failed. Reacher swore someday that he would make the sniper pay, but his curiosity is piqued when the gunman’s sole request after getting caught is ‘Get me Jack Reacher’. He has faith that Jack Reacher will find the truth despite his personal animosity for him.
Richard Jenkins and David Oyelowo play the by the book District attorney and lead detective respectively. Of course, Reacher’s rogue ways drive them crazy, but they can’t deny his greatness (slipping in sarcasm again). Helen, the sniper’s Public Defender and for plot twist also the D.A.’s daughter (isn’t that a conflict of interest) is played lustfully by Rosemund Pike. She is an actress who is much too good to playing a mere eye candy role, but I feel that most of the actors in this film were above this material. Most of the film, she spends more time trying to resist her feelings of lust towards Reacher than trying to defend her client. In fact, almost every woman in the movie is instantly mesmerized by Reacher’s sheer manliness. I never knew an unemployed middle-aged drifter could be so attractive to such a wide variety of women.
I will say that the unravelling of the crime itself was interesting. There were some major jumps at logic and going down certain investigative paths that seemed improbable, but it was still a clever paradigm shifting discovery. Again, for a loner with only the clothes on his back, it stained credulity at how seriously people took him and how much access he was given to highly sensitive information. He entered every situation by bursting unchallenged through office doors and got out of every difficult situation by beating someone up.
The villain is played by the great German director, Werner Herzog, playing a Russian mobster who does evil stuff just to show how evil he is. Misshappen and crippled, because ugly people are always the bad guys. I wasn’t even exactly sure what the goal of his evil plan was, but it had to be evil because he liked doing evil. Again, a great artist who lowered himself to be in this film
This is a pure macho fantasy that will appeal to any military obsessed, camouflage wearing over weight nerd living in his parents basement or to any loner with survivalist fantasies. The action was strictly by the numbers and not even that well done. Say what you want about Cruise, but he is better than this. I predict this will not become the franchise that was hoped for (thankfully). See this movie if you want to see a lot of guns fire and some mildly intriguing plot twists. ‘Movie hint’: you can always tell a film will be bad by the trailer when you see all these quotes saying how ‘Tremendous’, ‘Must not miss’, or ‘Spectacular’ the movie is. If the quotes go by incredibly fast and you can’t read who the quote belongs to because the font is too small to read, then you know they aren’t credible sources and the film will probably be a dud.
I give this film * 1/2 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment