Jack Reacher

Let me get this out of the way: I think that Tom Cruise is one of the best actors in Hollywood. My criteria for "best" being, "are they in good movies and do they do a good job in said movies?" Cruise absolutely fits this bill. Just take a look at his movies over the last ten years:

Jack Reacher
Rock of Ages 
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Knight and Day
Valkyrie
Tropic Thunder
Lions for Lambs
Mission Impossible III
War of the Worlds
Collateral
The Last Samurai
Minority Report

I haven't seen Lions for Lambs or Rock of Ages, but all the rest of those are good to great (especially Minority Report and Collateral). He's done comedy, action, and drama, and has been consistently good in all of it. I don't think anyone will refute the fact that personally he's a total nutbar, but professionally, he's one of the best in the business.

Going into Jack Reacher I expected a charismatic performance from Cruise, some good action, and a serviceable plot. That is exactly what I got. Reacher is based off of the Lee Child book series about former military policeman Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise). Reacher is called in after a mass murder suspect asks for him by name during his interrogation. From his time in the service, Reacher knows this man to be a killer who has gotten away with murder, and wants to see him brought to justice. He reluctantly agrees to help the defense attorney (Rosamund Pike) investigate the matter, and starts to uncover the pieces of what actually happened.

Reacher is kind of your basic conspiracy movie. The plot moves along almost like an episode of Law and Order. The opening set of murders is shown, Reacher comes in to investigate, and there are some good twists and turns. If you're looking for a great police investigation movie like Se7en, then this movie will do nothing for you. Some of the twists were surprising, I just found myself not caring that much about them.

Where Reacher separates itself is, you guessed it, through Tom Cruise. He's the coolest and most confident person on screen every time he shows up. He's one step ahead of pretty much everyone; he's smarter, stronger, and more capable than any adversary. If this were any other actor besides Tom Cruise, I'd be put off by his superhero like ability. Actually, he's better than a superhero because superheros at least have one weakness. Reacher basically has no blind spots except for the fact that he's a minor hot head. Otherwise he does whatever he needs to and being a drifter who is "off the grid" in the first place, he has no real consequences except for death, which you never really feel is a threat. Cruise makes Reacher interesting because he's Tom Cruise. If you're a fan of his on-screen persona, you'll love it. If not, I'm guessing you will be less impressed.

Jack Reacher is a run of the mill action movie with an extremely charismatic lead actor. Much like Knight and Day, which was similar in its overall mediocrity, you will love or hate Jack Reacher based on how you feel about Tom Cruise. Personally, I love Cruise, and thought Reacher wasn't half bad.

3/5