Jack Reacher isn’t a bad thriller film, but it’s one we’ve seen way too many times and the predictability blares too loudly. On the screen, that formula overwhelms nearly every scene. True, there is a formula to the books but it is a formula that is invisible and works every time.
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With his military police background, Reacher knows how to clean up a town, and when to leave. On the page, Child’s drifter-hero mixes the thriller with an old-fashioned western. Spread some of the blame to writer and director Christopher McQuarrie ( The Usual Suspects, The Tourist). And that is what counts.īut Jack Reacher ’s shortfall isn’t totally Cruise’s fault. It would have been better to cast an unknown as Jack Reacher, an actor who could make us believe in this character and who would find himself in a star-making role.īut Cruise brings in the big bucks. Any moment he will take off his mask to reveal he is. It’s as if Ethan Hunt from the MI franchise went undercover as Jack Reacher. But it is difficult to buy him as Reacher, even in the scene where he is shirtless. He is simply Tom Cruise delivering the kind of performance that has worked time and again for him.Ĭruise is playing dress up he is saying the right things and trying to act like the hero. His performance isn’t bad and often is entertaining, but he should not be in this role.īut, Cruise brings nothing new to the role, no nuance, no reason to make those unfamiliar with Child’s novels understand why they are like the crack cocaine of mystery fiction.
And we sometimes forget that Cruise can be a really good actor as witnessed in The Color of Money and Born on the Fourth of July. He’s even shown he has a sense of humor and can riff off his image in Tropic Thunder and Rock of Ages. As a romantic lead, he’s had me at hello in Jerry Maguire and Top Gun.
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He has proven himself to be a decent action hero as Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible series and as a man caught up in situations beyond his control in The Firm and A Few Good Men. His personal oddities aside, I generally like Cruise as an actor.
It’s not the lack of height that shortens the appeal of Cruise as Reacher. (Ladd’s height has been reported to be anywhere from 5-5 to 5-9 with 5-6 being the most accepted.) Alan Ladd, at 5 feet-6 inches, is about the same height as Cruise, but no one sat higher in the saddle than he did in Shane. Granted, movies have a history of those rather short of stature playing bigger than life heroes. Well.Cruise may play Jack Reacher, but he is no Jack Reacher.Īnd it is not because physically Cruise doesn’t resemble the Reacher described in the novels.
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The real curiosity about the movie Jack Reacheris not about the plot or or the action it’s about the star.Ĭan Tom Cruise, not known for his height or his brawn, slip into the shoes of Jack Reacher, described in Lee Child’s novels as 6' 5" tall with a 50-inch chest, and weighing between 210 and 250 pounds?