Jack Reacher

It's no secret that Mr Cruise, Hollywood's pint sized action hero is not my favourite leading man. Unfortunately in this film he does nothing to rebuild those bridges, playing a former military police officer who is more objectionable than Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock, and frustratingly less infallible (however unlikely the scenario). In fact, you'd be forgiven for thinking Jack Reacher may just have been a superhuman publicity role for Cruise; the sharpest mind, the greatest fighter, the finest driver (albeit in a thoroughly mediocre car chase). It sounds like a pretty tall order (pun intended) for that to form the basis of a film I would like, and it plays out almost exactly as you'd expect. There's a really neat idea at the bottom of the story - a man framed for a series of murders that he didn't (but could have) committed, and the only person able to prove his innocence is a detective who swore to bring him to justice for a previous crime that he couldn't get tried for. Sadly, that's pretty much where the interest ends. Some relatively standard double crossing, an ability to piece together meaningless information in a way that borders on omnipotence, and an altogether frustrating father/daughter sub-plot that adds absolutely nothing to the main storyline all add together to bring Jack Reacher crashing to its knees. Sadly, not even a somewhat interesting ten minutes with Robert Duvall is capable of bringing this back from just being another 'Tom Cruise saves the day' film, although this one comes with an extra helping of obnoxiousness.

Perspective is vital when filming a Tom Cruise movie. After all, we wouldn't want the 19 year old girl in the background to be taller than him, would we?

Vital Statistics
Director	Christopher McQuarrie
Cast	Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, Werner Herzog, David Oyelowo, Robert Duvall
Length	130 mins
Post Credits Scene	No
TFC Mash-Up	A Few Good Men meets Shooter, but an altogether more disappointing result than that sounds
Star Rating