Jack Reacher

Not gonna lie, I wasn't sure about this movie. Unfortunately, it was mainly due to Tom Cruise.

I have nothing against Cruise, granted I do question some of the personal choices he's made, but in short I just can't really take him seriously in certain roles. I had doubts about him being able to pull off the action hero anymore. And I think that's mainly due to the Mission Impossible series.

I loved one and two but then 3 came along. The character of Ethan Hunt really seemed to make sense for two movies. Since that one I've been pretty hesitant about watching him in an action movie. I intend to eventually watch all the Mission Impossible movies and review them but at this time, I'll just say I liked the first two much more than 3 and Ghost Protocol.

But he didn't stop. Maybe I thought he did but he didn't.

So when I saw the trailer for Jack Reacher where the camera pans around and you see Tom Cruise driving a sick car, I wasn't too impressed yet.

I didn't see it in theaters and really wasn't planning on seeing it for a while.

Of course, until it came onto Netflix.

The movie starts out with an unknown gunman setting up a sniper rifle in a parking lot. He then proceeds to shoot down 6 random people.

From that, the investigation is done in silence very clearly and concisely. Its really done well. They immediately go to a former US Army sniper named James Barr. (played by Jospeh Sikora) While being interrogated, Barr simply writes down, "Get Jack Reacher".

Enter Jack Reacher, a former Military Police officer. He's very good and making himself disappear and only being found if he wants to be found. He always has a great comeback, he's incredibly observant and he's a brilliant investigator.

He gets paired up with the woman defending Barr (played by Rosamund Pike).

To her, it doesn't really matter if Barr is innocent or guilty, she just wants to make sure that he gets a fair trial.

The interesting thing about this premise is that Barr is not a friend of Reacher's. Its not like they were war buddies, in fact its very much the opposite. Reacher comes into the film thinking that Barr is guilty. For majority of the movie, they play it off as if Barr was really the shooter. Maybe he is maybe he isn't but without giving too much away, you can probably guess how this goes down. I'll give you one more hint, it involves conspiracy and what is conspiracy theory's weapon of choice? The Sniper rifle of course.

I went into this movie with very low expectations and I was really surprised with the result I came out of it with.

I don't want to speak too soon, but this movie may have reignited my faith in Tom Cruise.

The action is really good, its funny in all the right places, and Tom Cruise absolutely owns the movie. I would almost describe Jack Reacher as a weird love child of Jason Bourne and John McClain. It really reminded me of a good 80's crime thriller movie, the ones like Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, or any Tom Clancy movie.

Now that's not to say the movie didn't have some problems.

When I say this movie felt like an 80's crime thriller, it really did. Rosamund Pike was pretty in the movie and while she was a prestigious lawyer, she didn't really do much in the movie. Very 80's-ish. Furthermore, Reacher is kind of an asshole. Its almost like Tom Cruise is a different generation of actor, this isn't the politically correct 2012 hero, this is live fast with fast women 80's hero. This isn't so much of a complaint as a warning. There are aspects of Jack Reacher you may not like. For me, I loved it. He was charismatic and very reminiscent of a time gone by.

The first real complaint was the conspiracy theory of the movie. Now I like a good conspiracy movie now and then but it has to make sense. Jack Reacher is suppose to be this crack investigator and yet there's a lot of leads that really don't hold any weight at all. He bases a lot of the leads on hunches or wrong looks people give him. I guess there's a certain charm and intrigue with a character trait like that, but it sometimes gets a little ridiculous.

And the other part of that problem is the magnitude of the villains. There isn't much of one. I don't think the movie is so far to the Jason Bourne type of movie that its a government conspiracy but they still have to string some conspiracy in there and make it seem awesome. But the motivation for this elaborate conspiracy falls a little flat in the end. The villains are menacing enough but if you take a moment to think about what they're actually fighting to keep such a secret, its kind of silly.

The final complaint I have with this movie isn't really a complaint at all. Its more of a what the fuck? moment.

Robert Duvall is in this movie. He doesn't even have that big of a part, he's just this gun shop owner who trained James Barr. He's not really that essential of a character, he's just kind of there.

Don't get me wrong, he's hilarious. It's not just his presence that made me laugh, it was his performance. He does a really good job.

It was just really random. I think the last thing I saw Robert Duvall in was "We Own the Night" and I didn't care for that movie at all. And he's doing Jack Reacher?

The guy is getting old, I get that and he deserves to be in a couple movies I haven't heard of. He's made enough of a name for himself that he can choose the roles he wants to do. Chances are he saw something he liked in Jack Reacher and he wanted to be a part of it. And you can't really give him grief for that.

Again, its not a complaint, it was just kind of strange.

But overall, Jack Reacher was a fun surprise for me. A good combination of old crime thriller and new crime thriller put together to make a fun action filled movie worth a watch. I would go see a sequel to this movie and in a way, its really put my faith back in good o'l Tom.

So have you seen Jack Reacher? What did you think of it? Are you a fan of Tom Cruise? Put your comments below and let me here your thoughts.

I'll leave you with this. You saw this coming, there's no way I can talk about Tom Cruise and not bring up the fact that he dressed up in a fat suit and danced to Flo Rida in Tropic Thunder. And... it. was. GLORIOUS!