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Tom Cruise IS Jack Reacher : My 'better late than never' take on the movie

Here's my better-late-than-never quick take on the Jack Reacher movie. Brilliant. I don't care how short Tom Cruise is. I don't care if he looks like Jack Reacher or doesn't. I don't care how weird Tom Cruise's Scientology connection is. And clearly it's weird. Tom Cruise knows how to deliver two hours of movie thrills and chills, cut with comedic relief, spliced with a little sexual tension. If you like the Mission Impossible franchise, if you liked Edge of Tomorrow (I LOVED IT) it's impossible for you not to like this movie too. I was a doubter before the movie was released way back in 2012, but we watched it last night on Netflix and I'm a doubter no more. You can also catch it on Amazon, Google Play and VUDU.

I'll be honest, I haven't read a single Jack Reacher book but my husband has read them all and he approves. "He doesn't look a thing like Reacher but apart from that? Fantastic!"


In Child's novels, Reacher is supposed to be an ex-military, bigger than big, burly drifter. No one has every accused Tom Cruise of being either but he's lethal, and he's deadly. If looks could kill, Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher could. I feel terrible that I took so much glee in watching Cruise rip the bad guys to shreds. Breaking knuckles, stomping on heads, gouging out eyes. It's all in a days' work. Because he's a drifter, doesn't give a damn and has nothing left to lose.


Based on Child's One Shot, the movie opens with the viewer tracking a killer undertake a mass shooting. We see it being done, in cold blood, with precision and calculation. And we see who does it. There's a mountain of evidence and David Oweloyo, the officer in charge of the investigation makes an arrest. Rosamund Pike is the lawyer defending the mass killer, a killer whose last words before he slips into a coma are "Get Jack Reacher".  She does, and just like the audience, is barely immune to Tom Cruise's charms, er, I mean Jack Reacher's charms. The two team up to get to the truth.

That's it, that's the set up. The fantastic cast includes Richard Jenkins as the DA—and Pike's father—known for offering criminals a chance to confess or go to prison. He has an incredibly, suspiciously high rate of success. Robert Duvall is gold in a small but pivotal part as a gun range owner. Jai Courtney is criminally good at playing a very bad boy. 


So twenty Jack Reacher books, eh? I may have to start reading them. Especially since my husband already owns them all on his Nook. I can't wait for Tom Cruise to make 'em all into movies. How about you? Talk to me.