Jack Reacher

Lo and behold, I have watched a modern movie for once.

Today we are taking a look at Jack Reacher (2012).

This movie is based on the novel One Shot, by Christopher McQuarrie. I haven't read it, so I'm not commenting on it, I'm just mentioning it.

First of all, this is a Tom Cruise produced movie, starring Tom Cruise. Now, this isn't a bad thing – Tom always gives it his all. I haven't seen all his films, but the ones I have seen are at least decent and he never gives a lousy performance.

Anyway, Jack Reacher is no exception. It is a very enjoyable movie. But it's a weird one. The story in a nutshell is this;

A man is accused of shooting five people, and during interrogation, he asks for Jack Reacher. Reacher is a former military police Major with pretty much every decoration and medal the U.S. gives out. Being an amazing investigator, he and the accused persons lawyer, Helen, digs around. The plot thickens, lots of action happens, end credits roll.

So far so good, but I get a feeling that this film has a bit of an identity crisis. Conspiracies, deep deceptions, cover ups and paranoia belongs in the thriller category. Car chases, tense shoot-outs and close combat badassery belongs in the action section. Snappy dialog, and goofy events are pretty much comedy material.

Of course, action-comedies are normal, as are action-thrillers. But an action-thriller-comedy is an odd bird to say the least. Alright, so I'm being a bit picky here. There isn't that much comedy, but there is enough to stand out. The surprising thing is, it works. For some mysterious reason this movie hit pretty much all the right notes.

Jack is the typical lone wanderer, bad-ass fighter, super smart hero. You have seen him before with other faces and names. He can beat up multiple goons at ones. Whether it's clues or bullets, he doesn't miss, ever. You know the type, but Reacher feels a little more “realistic”.

Helen is awful. I have nothing against Rosamund Pike, but Helen is a weak character through and through. She spends half her scenes looking bewildered, as if Rosamund had just realized she's in a Cruise movie and she's not sure if that's good for her career. You could replace her with anyone else and it wouldn't matter.

We have a couple of veterans making and appearance. Robert Duvall and Werner Herzog play small but important roles, and there are some other recognizable faces. No complaints about the others.

The action is really solid. Well shot, and not too jumpy or dark. The stand out for me is how people react when getting shot. They don't go flying or spin several times. They mostly fall over as they should. Bonus points there.

My biggest complaint (apart from Helen) is the way the film presents the “mystery”. It's hard to say if it's intentionally feeding you information, or if it's clumsily leaving things in the open, but by the time the characters learn something vital, you already know about it.

Ultimately, Jack Reacher doesn't really do anything new, but it does it's thing well. It is in my book a genuinely entertaining movie. I got the feeling that they had fun when shooting it, and that's awesome. If you want a decent low key action movie, you can do a lot worse than this. And by low key I mean it's not by Michael Bay.

That is that. Until next time, have a great week and stay safe.