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How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 22 December 2012
This article is a review of JACK REACHER. |
“You think I'm a hero? I am not a hero. And if you're smart, that scares you. Because I have nothing to lose,” Jack Reacher
After DAYS OF THUNDER, perhaps Tom Cruise and Robert Duvall should stop working together. It’s hard to believe the man behind the smarts of THE USUAL SUSPECTS and the brawn of THE WAY OF THE GUN could turn in something so lacklustre and brainless. I could imagine Steven Seagal in the lead, not Cruise. It has one of those early 1990s DIE HARD-one-man-army knock off vibes permeating proceedings. There’s even House of Pain’s JUMP AROUND playing in a bar. We get given clunky, unironic lines like:
“There's this guy. He's a kind of cop, at least he used to be. He doesn't care about proof, he doesn't care about the law, he only cares about what's right. He knows what I did. You can't protect me. No one can.”
After DAYS OF THUNDER, perhaps Tom Cruise and Robert Duvall should stop working together. It’s hard to believe the man behind the smarts of THE USUAL SUSPECTS and the brawn of THE WAY OF THE GUN could turn in something so lacklustre and brainless. I could imagine Steven Seagal in the lead, not Cruise. It has one of those early 1990s DIE HARD-one-man-army knock off vibes permeating proceedings. There’s even House of Pain’s JUMP AROUND playing in a bar. We get given clunky, unironic lines like:
“There's this guy. He's a kind of cop, at least he used to be. He doesn't care about proof, he doesn't care about the law, he only cares about what's right. He knows what I did. You can't protect me. No one can.”
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Retro can be satisfying. DRIVE, for instance, has a 70s-meets-modern feel that had many audiences swooning over the mix of style and muscular brutality. JACK REACHER weirdly harks back to before the likes of FACE/OFF and THE MATRIX kicked these banal action-thrillers to the curb, where some vigilante disregards the rule of law in favour of his own brand of justice. And with Christopher Nolan’s BATMAN trilogy, I had hoped Hollywood had embraced the intelligent and ambitious idea that there are repercussions for fighting crusades without democratic state backing. At least the character of Reacher is not some ex-commando turned chef dispensing baddies to a hurt locker. Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie places his protagonist in an environment where those in the official justice system are dubious – thus giving a raison d'être that is not completely at odds with quality modern cinema.
There are two standout sequences: A car chase that demos exciting choreography absent elsewhere; and a tense opening sniper shooting that triggers off the plot. All the evidence points to a veteran for the initial mass killing. Before he falls into a coma while in custody, he asks for Jack Reacher, who turns up not help the accused but to make sure he is buried. While making sure this happens, Reacher gets sucked into a conspiracy involving the lead investigator (David Oyelowo), the district attorney (Richard Jenkins), a lawyer (Rosamund Pike), and various locals.
Whatever you think of Cruise, one has to admire his commitment to each role he undertakes. He invests characters with fortitude and charisma. He’s the only one who comes off this decently. Everyone is handed duff lines, duff motivations or left hanging. I was excited about the casting of Werner Herzog as the big bad, The Zec. Not only one of the top directors of all time, he has a mellifluous voice that adds mystery and gravitas to his documentaries. Here, he is hilarious - hysterical and undaunting as Klaus the fish in AMERICAN DAD. The novel is badly written, but at least The Zec was ghoulish and intimidating.
We have an A-list cast and crew delivering B-movie material.
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