Jack Reacher Review

-
       
          When I first heard that Tom Cruise was making a movie based on Lee Child's book series JACK REACHER I was intruiged even though I never nothing about Jack Reacher or had I read any of the books.
                     So I went to my local Library and picked up the first book in the series THE KILLING FLOOR and fell in love with the JACK REACHER book series. However, upon reading the books, I realized the movie had made an error in casting Jack Reacher. In the books, Jack is 6 foot 5 inches and weighs around 250 lbs.He is also somewhat scraggly. He IS NOT a 5 foot 7 inch, 180 pound pretty boy. I also began to understood why other Reacher fans were up in arms over the casting of Mr. Cruise. 1) Because he's Tom Cruise and 2)like I already mentioned, Mr.Cruise doesn't fit the character build.
My interest in seeing the movie diminished and instead, after the movie opened and played itself out in theaters,I had decided to wait to see the movie on DVD and read some of the books instead.

          Now that I have the background out of the way, I can move on to the movie itself.
          The movie is based on the ninth book in the Jack Reacher series entitled ONE SHOT.
          The movie version is mostly faithful to the book, with a couple of things left out of the novel that doesn't matter here. But the big difference when comparing the book to the movie is the third act. I had a problem with the book version because I felt it was anti-climatic with no suspense. The movie fixes that problem with much better results.
        The critical element of the movie is Tom Cruise himself. Even though he does not capture the physical aspect of the title character, he does capture everything else about him. He captures his attitude and reaction of the character to a tee. See it and decide for yourself, but leave your personal feelings for Tom at the door.
       On another note, this movie is an old school action movie like the Dirty Harry movies of the 70's. There are no over the top action set pieces like in Mission:Impossible 4. It's a solid character piece with a solid story.There is more to the character of Jack that the movie didn't explore and that's fine. It leaves something for a possible sequel to explore.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it an 8.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Movie Review: DADDY'S HOME 2

-
Image
   Movies like DADDY'S HOME 2 are made for two things- to entertain and to make people laugh. That is exactly what this sequel to the hit DADDY'S HOME succeeds in doing. Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg return as Brad and Dusty, co-dad's to Sara's(Linda Cardellini) two children, as well as much of the original cast. To recap the first one, Brad (Ferrell) is the step-dad to Sara's(Cardellini) two children who finds himself competing with the real Dad, Dusty(Walhberg) for the title of Dad.   With DADDY's HOME 2, we get the Grandfathers added to the mix. Mel Gibson as Dusty's Dad, Kurt and John Lithgow as Brad's Dad, Don. Gibson is stunt casting while Lithgow's performance is indicative of his award-winning career. Lithgow plays a comedic role in dramatic fashion. It could be the other way around as well. One of the things had a problem with in this movie is Gibson's performance, which I found to be a lackluster performance. It as if Gibson is just
Read more

Movie Review: WINCHESTER (PG-13)

-
Image
      WINCHESTER tells the tale of Sarah Winchester (playing convincingly by Helen Mirren) and the infamous mansion she built (with help from construction people, of course) for years on end. She claims that her mansion is haunted by the ghosts of people who died from the Winchester rifle and is determined to turn her vast estate into a prison for the ghouls. Enter Doctor Eric Price (played well by Jason Clarke of  Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), who is hired to do a phycological evaluation on Mrs.Winchester to prove whether or not she is of sound mind.   The film unfolds at a steady pace, clocking in at 99 minutes and long enough not to wear out it's welcome. One can easily predict how the story will play out. It's your standard, run of the mill haunted house thriller that breaks no new ground in the genre.The Spierig Brothers(Michael and Peter)manage to create a watchable and somewhat entertaining film that is good for passing the time. This film doesn't come anywhere
Read more

LOOKING FOR FEEDBACK (4-25-18)

-
Image
   Hello, Ladies and Gentlemen I appreciate those who take their time out to read my movie reviews. I am looking for feedback. I recently started a new type of review that I call Q&A Movie Reviews. Have you read the two I recently wrote? If so, do you like the style versus the traditional style movie review? What do you think about the reviews in general? Any feedback you are willing to give me will be quite helpful when writing future reviews. Feel free to post in the comment section below and share with me your thoughts.   Thank you for your time. William Wygle
Read more