This review is the start of a series I am doing focusing on the filmography of Tom Cruise. In anticipation of Mission: Impossible Fallout, I have decided to go back through Cruise’s films and review them. I will watch some of these for the first time, and others for the second, third, fourth, or even tenth or twentieth time. Since the new M:I film is the latest team up for Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie, I have decided to start with their first team up (with McQuarrie in the director’s chair), Jack Reacher. Let the Cruise-a-thon begin!
*Slight spoilers ahead*
Jack Reacher is an action thriller based on the book series by Lee Child. It centers around the titular character, who is an ex-military investigator called upon to help an attorney save an alleged mass shooter from the death penalty. Cruise is cast against type here, shedding the boy scout cleanliness of his previous roles in a film that never reaches its full potential.
We’ll start with Cruise, the focus behind this review series. He is great in the title role of Jack Reacher. This is a different role than we are used to seeing Cruise in. Usually, the charismatic actor plays high energy characters with a firm moral center. Even in his biggest action role, Ethan Hunt of the Mission: Impossible series, he isn’t quick to violence. This could not be further from the case here. Jack Reacher is extremely violent, and incapacitates or kills enemies without remorse. It’s slightly jarring at first, but Cruise slides into the role easily, and does so with his typical charisma.
The supporting cast members are all solid, and bring their A-game to the table. Rosamund Pike delivers a great performance, but she is unfortunately demoted to damsel-in-distress in the third act. David Oyelowo is a pleasure to watch as always, though the film should have given him more to work with. Jai Courtney is better than usual in his antagonistic role of Charlie. A scene involving him tying up a loose end was intense and well acted.
Yet, out of all the supporting cast, Robert Duvall nearly steals the show with a small role of a shooting range owner who comes to Reacher’s aid in the third act. It’s clear he is having fun here, and it’s extremely fun to watch him. He makes the most out of his minimal screen time.
The direction is something to be admired here, as well. McQuarrie knows how to put together intense set pieces, and while this film doesn’t have anything on the level of Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, it certainly has some engaging sequences. The opening scene of the crime that kicks off the plot, a mass shooting by a sniper, is edge of your seat. McQuarrie teases the audience in an almost Hitchcockian way, putting us behind the scope of the sniper rifle and making us guess who the first victim will be.
A car chase in the second act also stands out. Maybe it was the red classic car that Reacher drives in this scene, but at times, it felt like a scene from John Carpenter’s Christine edited into an action sequence. It also ends with a light gag that extracted a laugh or two and brings some levity that’s needed after the events leading up to it.
The third act drifts into the standard action movie tropes, but is put together well. A scene in which Duvall’s Cash creates a diversion to give Reacher the element of surprise is one of the most entertaining in the film. It peaks when Reacher corners Jai Courtney’s Charlie. Instead of shooting him, Reacher tosses his gun away, and they go hand-to-hand in the rain, in a fight scene reminiscent of the Riggs/Joshua showdown at the end of Lethal Weapon.
The one thing that seems to be holding this film back is its PG-13 rating. For all the violence carried out by the characters, it’s rarely felt. You hear bones snapping, you see people fall to the ground after being shot, but it’s all bloodless. Jack Reacher is a violent, relentless character, but the audience doesn’t get to feel it. Keeping the camera rolling on certain scenes would have added some much-needed bite to certain scenes. American Assassin did this particularly well, and this film would have benefited from the same treatment.
Overall, Jack Reacher was an enjoyable action thriller that teased the great things to come from the McQuarrie/Cruise dream team. Cruise is in fine form, and there are some truly fun action sequences. The film has its flaws, but not enough to derail it in any way. I would give Jack Reacher three and a half out of five Cruise missiles (ha…get it?).
