When a former military man is nabbed for the senseless murders of five civilians, he asks for ‘Jack Reacher’, the only man who he believes can help him. Based on a novel called ‘One Shot’ by Lee Child, the 2012 movie ‘Jack Reacher’ directed by Christopher McQuarrie stars Tom Cruise as the titular hero.
Since I haven’t read the novel, it’s hard to say how faithful the script is to its source material, but Christopher McQuarrie for sure has tailored the onscreen adaptation to make the film look like it was made for Tom Cruise fans. Cruise’s character Reacher is made out to be some sort of ghost who cannot be found unless he wants to be found. You get the drift, right? He is batman, minus the fancy tech and wealth.
Joseph Sikora plays Barr, a trained military sniper accused of the five murders, while Rosamund Pike is his defence attorney Helen. Helen is forced to work with Reacher, whose legwork leads him to believe the deaths aren’t as random as they appear to be. Robert Duvall has a fun little cameo as a former military guy who helps Reacher with his investigation.
While the plot is mildly intriguing, Jack Reacher’s character is too larger than life and the movie doesn’t back him up with enough action sequences to justify the exaggerated swagger. The script is also unnecessarily verbose, and yet the characters aren’t memorable (except for Reacher) or likable. For example, in the very first half, viewers are informed Barr isn’t a great guy, so it becomes hard to care about anybody trying to defend him.
Overall, ‘Jack Reacher’ is an interesting enough film to watch once. Tom Cruise obviously pulls off the ‘too cool for school’ military cop role with ease.
It’s a 6.5/10 from me. Stream it on Prime Video.