Jack Reacher

Rating: 8.2/10

Film Class: B

Genre: Action Thriller

Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) is a drifter and a former major in the U.S. army military police corps. He had recieved many military awards but went off the grid, reasons unknown. As claimed from one scene, he cannot be found, unless he wants to. He resurfaces after a former miltary sniper went on a killing spree and shot 5 random victims. The reason of his reappearance? To convict the murderer of his crime. This seemingly straight forward case was picked up by defense attorney Helen Rodin, who also happens to be the District Attorney's daughter, and manages to persuade Jack Reacher to investigate the case further. You know what's coming... nothing is as it seems (if not there's wouldn't be a movie) and Jack uncovers a conspiracy which puts both his and Helen Rodin's lives on the line. 

Thankfully, Jack Reacher is almost as untouchable as Bryan Millis, retired CIA agent from the movie Taken. With that knowledge, through the introduction of his character, makes his unadvantageous situations less intense. It's not a bad thing, cos' despite so, Tom Cruise's superb acting sometimes makes you forget that he's that invulnerable with his occasional panicky expressions. All I'm saying is that it's less of a character empathy movie but more of a "can't wait to see him kick more asses" movie. 

It turned out way better than I had thought it was capable of achieving. There's plot, there's humor, yup, humor alright, not a one-off thing but little bits here and there, there's action, coolness and the only thing lacking, is romance. Which of course, isn't vital in an action thriller. I'm not watching this movie for "aw" moments or kissing scenes (zilch in this one, it's a sexually clean movie), I was hoping for stress-relieving action and I got more than what I hoped for... 

Jack Reacher is so underrated there wasn't any hype about it when it came onto the big screens, reasons I can only assume lies in the main lead. There has been bad publicity about Tom Cruise recently, still, I think he's one of the giant actors (even though he's only 1.7m in height) in Hollywood who can really act. 

*major spoilers ahead* Puzzled by one point of the movie was why the murderer paid for parking. It was brought up around 3 times by Jack Reacher, and though the "truth" was staring blatantly at me, I was a bit lost cause there wasn't a direct explanation of it. I kinda shut my brains off. Well, if you were as confused as I was, I found out that because the coin used for the parking had the murderer's prints on them and it was to frame the suspect. And since it was to frame the suspect, it had to be planted, which ie. to say, paying for parking, didn't make sense. Literally. It's just there to fabricate the evidence. 

Shucks, I had to use a bit of brains afterall. All in all, Jack Reacher was really fun to watch, exciting, intense, and engaging. Cute at times with its light-hearted humour.