The "One Man, One Mission" genre of film has been around for awhile, its form can even be traced in early literature such as "The Odyssey". Stars such as Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen made their careers with this genre in the 70's and it almost became a lost genre in the 80's with almost superhero action stars such as Stallone, Van Damme and Schwarzenegger. As previously discussed in other entries on this site with the introduction of Jason Bourne the genre of "OMOM" came back with immense popularity, Liam Neeson and his "Taken" franchise helped solidify this further.
Tom Cruise has been the go to PG-13 action star for going on his third decade now, with films such as the "Mission Impossible" franchise and "War of the Worlds" Cruise is the supreme leader of action films that you want to see as well as your grandma. Cruise has smartly traded in his leather pants and monkey from the (almost) so bad its good musical flop "Rock of Ages" for "Jack Reacher" a film based on the first book from author Lee Child's popular literary franchise. The character of Jack is described in the book as among other things-tall, something that Cruise is indeed not, I think that scenes of Cruise with his shirt off and in bed with scantily clad women is to try and make up for Cruise's lack of being a forceful presence as the character is described in the book. Luckily Cruise brings his charisma to full blast and it makes the film work beyond expectations.
The movie begins with a basically dialogue free first few minutes, something that actually works given that the first scene is of a sniper taking out random people in a Pittsburgh park, given the real life events of recent weeks this is a disturbing scene and it surprised me that they left it in the final film. Actually, the film is quite topical in this regard as gun control is brought up in minor form towards the end of the movie. The man who is arrested for this crime only has one request "Get me Jack Reacher" it is explained that Jack Reacher is someone who is not "gotten" and if he wants to find you, he will find you. Reacher is ex military and through the course of the film we find out why it is that he is here, the plot is very procedural which is refreshing in these days of Nolan-esque plot twists.
Simplicity is what makes this film work. Cruise is a good enough actor to know this isn't "Macbeth" he delivers his lines with enough gusto to take him seriously and writer/director Christopher Mcquarrie knows how to shoot a fight scene- a must in a film such as this. Other than Cruise the best performance in "Jack Reacher" is by acclaimed independent film/documentary maker Werner Herzog as the main villain known only as "The Zec" Herzog delivers his lines with such creepiness that he made me wish he was the bad guy in "Skyfall". British actress Rosamund Pike plays the love interest and while a beauty to look at I'd hope if there are future installments they go for someone who isn't just "boobs in a business suit" and can deliver a believable American accent.
So overall "Jack Reacher" is not groundbreaking, in fact its the opposite, its a cry back to simple movies that are just entertaining as they stand, one leading man and no alien invasion or "it was all a dream" moments. Cruise, like most big movie stars is much better at being an actor then he is as a celebrity. If other installments of "Jack Reacher" are made I would definitely see them, even if they resort to Cruise wearing lifts in his shoes...
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