![]() ![]() That’s the kind of movie “Jack Reacher” aspires to be, but within the confines of its PG-13 rating, such ruthlessness doesn’t fly. Every so often, McQuarrie’s soundbite script gives Cruise a line he can really relish, as when Reacher tells the real sniper, “You killed that girl to put me in a frame, and I mean to beat you to death and drink your blood from a boot.” Seeing as how Child’s Reacher novels are composed mostly of terse sentences, three to five words apiece, McQuarrie follows suit with his adaptation, delivering dialogue and story in sharp little jabs. Caleb Deschanel), and somewhat redeems its silliness through action, featuring several satisfying hand-to-hand altercations, a tense car chase and a well-staged climactic shootout in a gravel quarry. The setup may be clunky and the character a cliche, but the film looks terrific (courtesy of d.p. Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie’s challenge ultimately centers on finding ways to distinguish his mostly derivative script, based on the kind of guilty-pleasure read one buys at the airport and leaves on the seat. That’s hardly the demo Paramount is aiming for, however. The only pleasure this man takes is in punishing bad guys, and behind this particular scheme lurks a wonderfully evil Werner Herzog, whose rare acting role more than justifies the price of admission for fans of the heavily accented director. ![]() Here, the star toys with those expectations, appearing shirtless in the lawyer’s hotel room long enough to generate sexual tension, then walking out before she can get the wrong idea. In a different kind of Cruise movie, Reacher would take her breath away in a soft-focus sex scene. Enter Reacher, ready to send her client straight to hell, when Helen convinces him to assist her in the suspect’s defense. The prosecutor never loses a case, though his legal-eagle daughter Helen ( Rosamund Pike) is convinced Dad’s methods have put innocent men on Death Row, so she picks this seemingly impossible opportunity to go head-to-head with him in court by defending Barr. ![]() Emerson ( David Oyelowo, playing it savvy) nabs the suspect, and the D.A. The marksman fires six shots, killing five, leaving behind clues that quickly lead to the arrest of trigger-happy Army vet James Barr (Joseph Sikora), whom Reacher remembers from the service.ĭet. Reacher’s bigscreen debut opens with a public shooting, a nasty bit of business depicted “Dirty Harry”-style through the scope of the sniper’s rifle. As imagined by Child, he’s a deliberately mysterious character, a drifter without a driver’s license or any permanent possessions who walks into a Goodwill store, buys a used leather jacket and donates his old duds on the way out. Living off the grid, the man’s a “ghost,” an ex-military inspector whose appearance at the scene of any crime usually means someone’s in for a reckoning. Whereas the hyperkinetic actor looks best on the run, Reacher is a slow-moving, six-and-a-half-foot enforcer - the kind of guy Cruise should be outwitting, not playing. Best case, a role like Reacher would give Cruise another chance to tap into his single-minded “Collateral” killer, but as written, he comes across as more of a weary boy scout, snuffing much of the energy that makes him so appealing. ![]()
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