Tom Cruise stars in a film directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who later on teamed up with Cruise to direct the latest Mission Impossible films. Its title character, Jack, is a former military police detective, who has an uncanny knack for details and following clues. Now he is pulled away from his voluntary exile to examine a mass shooting case concerning a former suspect of his.
The main thing to note with this film is its acting. Tom Cruise, for all his faults, is a fantastic actor and this is a good role for him. Apparently the Jack Reacher in the books the film is based on is a lot more intimidating physically, but Cruise has the weight of charisma on his side and he makes the role work for him. Rosamund Pike as a defense attorney for the shooting suspect is also very good and I'll never say a bad word about Robert Duvall, no matter the size of the role.
That being said, the film is a tad flat tonally. I get the sense that you'd get much more out of it had you read the books. For example, the main antagonist is simply put boring beyond believe. They look interesting, but we learn next to nothing about them and what we do learn has nothing to do with the plot or the crime they have committed. Those working for them are even less well defined.
The film also feels slow with its buildup and the final confrontation with the antagonist is not particularly exciting. Part of that is the tired and old damsel in distress cliché, but part of it is just the fact that I don't particularly care about what happens to these characters.
Still, it is shot and acted well. Cruise and McQuarrie simply needed better source material to work with, which they later showed with the Mission Impossible films.
The main thing to note with this film is its acting. Tom Cruise, for all his faults, is a fantastic actor and this is a good role for him. Apparently the Jack Reacher in the books the film is based on is a lot more intimidating physically, but Cruise has the weight of charisma on his side and he makes the role work for him. Rosamund Pike as a defense attorney for the shooting suspect is also very good and I'll never say a bad word about Robert Duvall, no matter the size of the role.
That being said, the film is a tad flat tonally. I get the sense that you'd get much more out of it had you read the books. For example, the main antagonist is simply put boring beyond believe. They look interesting, but we learn next to nothing about them and what we do learn has nothing to do with the plot or the crime they have committed. Those working for them are even less well defined.
The film also feels slow with its buildup and the final confrontation with the antagonist is not particularly exciting. Part of that is the tired and old damsel in distress cliché, but part of it is just the fact that I don't particularly care about what happens to these characters.
Still, it is shot and acted well. Cruise and McQuarrie simply needed better source material to work with, which they later showed with the Mission Impossible films.