Would suit a gritty series far better

Rating: 4/10 (28 September 2013)

Not really very good for a number of reasons. Firstly, the casting of Cruise as Reacher is immediately flawed. Not only in height, but hair colour, build and charisma. Cruise is just playing Cruisethere's not differentiation between this character and Ethan Hunt, for example. Just think of Hunt as a drifter. Secondly, the chemistry between Cruise and Rosamund Pike is laughable. She's pretty hammy, too. She just seems to open her eyes wider if she's trying to look concerned. The villains are pretty lame, and Werner Herzog sounds like he's doing an Arnie impressionironic given that's how he really speaks! The action scenes were OK, if a bit vacant, the plot twists were predictable and the typically brilliant Robert Duvall – who is always watchable – is simply playing for laughs in a role you feel is far more fleshed out in the novel. I'm confused as to why they chose the 9th Reacher book to film as well. In my view, the Reacher novels would by far suit an HBO series. Still, far better than the other recent Cruise disaster that was 'Oblivion'. That was atrocious.