Jack Reacher
130 mins / Dir. Name Here
Even with the trailer, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect as Cruise is a mixed-bag these days…
…which sums up Jack Reacher; it's part hi-octane action, part crime mystery, part conspiracy thriller. It's not particularly bad in any of those areas, but it feels slightly incohesive with a muddled sense of direction.
Now, if it wasn't for the fact that Jack is an established character, you'd swear blind that Cruise dreamt this up in that crazy ol' head of his. Every aspect of this tough, observational, fiercely intelligent, secretive, sensitive, chest-bearing, man of few words but witty and deadpan when he does say something, and hey… more than a little bit sexy, eh? leading role seems to scream "Hey ladies, you remember me, right? I'm single now! YEAH!"
The bottom line is, I enjoyed this far more than I probably should have. Cruise's Reacher shouldn't be as likeable as he is, Pike's alternately feisty/simpering Helen shouldn't be as sympathetic, Jenkins and Oyelowo as Rodin and Emerson should be more enigmatic and Herzog's Zec should be more detestable. They all fall short of their respective lines at deveral points, yet the film remains entirely watchable.
The plot's as twisty as you'd expect with this sort of thing, but it still runs out of steam long before Cruise does. At 130 minutes, it is too long, and the last half hour or so just seems like stalling rather than wrapping up proceedings to their Inevitable Conclusion™. That said, it never gets out-and-out boring as it's relentlessly cheesy and quippy even when it's resting.
A sequel? Probably. A series? Doubtable. Even at this early stage it's already clichéd; excusable this once, but not sustainable.
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
You know what happens when a good tailor aspires to create an apparel for the international market, say a fully embroidered long coat, buys the best fabric, best embroidery threads, copies the latest patterns, throws in a couple of his own, but simply cannot get hold of the karigars or workmen, or say cannot guide them enough to fill the entire coat with the international class embroidery, and so leaves gaps in various places! Resultantly, the long coat no doubt gets ready for the international market because whatever workmanship it entails is of the international standard, but the buyers will refrain from buying it because they are used to and they expect complete workmanship. This complete workmanship is what the audience expects from a Tom Cruise movie. As an actor, he has played the character pretty well. To the extent that he has even refrained from flashing his toothy grin and jaw dropping stunts! Depth of character is visible in the Assassin, but not in his Boss. Meaning to say that, strong characters have been created, but not explored. Presentation of the plot could have been made much more interesting. Herein one gets to know the difference between a good director and a brilliant director. Verdict: A fine movie but without any Tom Cruise effect.
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