Nothing wrong with that film. It’s not good, sure, but if you are rather tired on a Wednesday evening, and the cinema provides well-functioning air condition and iced tea, it’s better to see this one in the theatre rather than, say, the latest Terrence Malick reflections (not that the latter would have been an option in the local cineplex). Two days after seeing it, I am hard pressed to remember details, but it seems that Jack Reacher was called in by a former soldier to help out on a mass killing charge, and that’s what he does with cool attitude and physical ability beyond that of his opponents. Is there a doubt he will find out about the true reason of the murders, and hunt down the perpetrator?
Tom Cruise is credible enough in that role is super problem fixer, Werner Herzog is the same as he is in his documentary voice-overs (i.e. pleasantly creepy, if slightly ridiculous), Robert Duvall is always a pleasure to have around, Richard Jenkins and David Oleyowo are sadly underused. Of course there are car chases, and fist fights in which Cruise can reassert himself as true action hero, and all ends well, somehow, for some. It is a bit of spruced-up John Grisham story all in all (maybe then you would need to call it a Lee Child story, but I am no expert on his work), but maybe that’s what’s needed to make that kind of investigation / procedural tale work.
thomas4cinema 
2 Comments
Nice review. The action scenes, even though there are only three, are really intense and exciting. Some people might not like that there are only three action scenes, but I was fine with it because of how interesting the rest of the film was.
the low tone with absence of action scenes was maybe what I enjoyed about the film, in that it was a somehow pleasant deviation from the Bond/Bourne/etc formula. Thanks for stopping by!