Jack Reacher

Cruise demuestra que puede ser un agente genial no solo en atracciones vistosas de alto presupuesto con acrobacias innovadoras, sino también en un suspenso sobre crímenes bien pensado e imaginativo, que no tiene miedo de tomarse a sí mismo tan en serio. (29.03.2013)

I can’t remember seeing a movie which was be so likable, while at the same time undermining itself so much. The “good honest" thriller style of the 90’s has gone out of fashion, so every attempt to revive it is nice to see. Reacher has the advantage that despite being serious it doesn’t take itself too seriously which is even more admirable if we take into account the casting of Cruise who is certainly not the right person for the role of charismatic guys reeking of testosterone. Also worth mentioning is the cool directing (and that’s not just because of the opening eight minute taciturn sequence) and the emphasis on action scenes which aren’t over the top and involving cheating using CGI effects. Against that, it’s needlessly long. Not that there are unnecessary scenes, but many are longer that they should be and would be more suitable in the cut scenes section on the DVD/Blu-ray. Then there is the predictability of the plot which shifts the meaning of that word onto a completely new level (and it’s nothing to do with the fact that, for some weird reason, we know from the opening scene that this time Barr is innocent). The “who and how" is clear from the very beginning and very soon the “why" becomes apparent too, but the characters find out only after a good seventy minutes. And the biggest mistake you can make is to hire a (non)actor with one of the most charismatic voices on the planet for the role of arch villain, and then to use him as no more than an extra and in just two scenes. Otherwise I was satisfied and hopefully for number two the authors will learn from their mistakes. (09.04.2013)

Cruise as the adopted son of Steven Seagal and James Bond? No, more of a tired guy next door who had seen and experienced too much, and coincidentally, most of it consisted of ingenious deductions and fights with green brains. McQuarrie likes traditional genres, in The Way of the Gun he borrowed from a western, while here he worships an old-fashioned slow thriller with slowly dosed information and anachronically slow tracking-shots and disturbing hints. It's not bad at all, at least if one accepts this vague relationship between camp and deadly seriousness. I really enjoyed the exposition (which everyone curses), but I found myself fading a lot during the scenes where Cruise a) moralizes (does he really feel that someone is going to believe the anti-system rebel?), b) interrupts the speeches of other characters almost like a mythical superhero, although there is no reason to do anything like that. As a detective story, it works (there are not that many of them, so you will appreciate it if some deductive twist is successful), as a thriller it has a beard-mustache-leather charm, as camp there are plenty of attractions (Herzog and Duvall are perfect, the bathroom battle potentially iconic). As the thriller start of the "Reacher" series? Well, I didn't understand at all what McQuarrie wanted to pull out against the competition, apart from the confused rambling between humor and seriousness, successful self-defeating jokes and a world where they pretend to have ultra-realism, and for a while the string that the original A-Team strummed. If he avoided the heroic bombast and kept his feet on the ground, it could have been a dignified, prudent crime film. But that wouldn't be enough for Jack Reacher, would it? Four stars for having had a lot of fun for most of the two hours, sometimes perhaps against the dignified intentions of the creators and little Tom's persistent efforts to be as hard as granite in his fifties and as seductive as Cupid. P.S. Someone should explain to Chris that blondes with big eyes are nice, but their unreasonable staring into the camera doesn't seem witty at all. (19.12.2012)

I have to admit that even though I like Tom Cruise and action movies, I didn’t find Jack Reacher interesting at all when it launched in cinemas. I don’t even know why. In the end, I decided to watch it and I have to say that when it comes to action scenes, I haven’t seen a better movie. The main problem is the story. It starts our pretty interesting, but I somehow couldn’t get in sync with the intimate mood that follows the opening scene. Also, Tom isn’t a character I would grow very fond of at first sight. Well and there’s nobody else in the movie who could accomplish that. About halfway through the movie, I was getting pretty bored. But that was only until the scene with the Chevrolet Camaro. If nothing else, this scene was overflowing with energy in a way that I haven’t seen in any action scene in a long time. Too bad Jack Reacher isn’t the type I would love to go out and grab a beer with. He might convince me with his next movie. (13.01.2014)

This was great! It’s a fantastic genre film, which sprinkles one cliché after another in such a cadence that I snorted with joy for two hours. The film works in every conceivable way, from the (un)predictable story, the fitting music, and the hero’s catchphrases, to a few scenes that want to be quoted time after time (the opening, the bathroom, the chase, and even the rainy ending). This isn’t going to be the only movie theater screening. (02.01.2013)