All talk and little action makes Jack a dull boy.

Rating: 3/10 (14 October 2013)

Tom Cruise pops on his Cuban heels and sucks in his gut to play the drifter hero of Lee Child's successful Jack Reacher series. In this film, based on the book 'One Shot', Reacher is hired to help solve the case of an ex-army sniper accused of randomly shooting five innocent victims only to uncover a conspiracy involving Russian criminals with useful connections in the law department.
I've not read any of the Jack Reacher novels, so I'm not about to have a moan about how Tom Cruise looks nothing like the character described in the books, but I am going to have a moan about how this blatant vanity project for Cruise is predictable and dull, with way too much talk and not nearly enough action.
The DVD case promised 'a heart-pounding, explosive ride', but the reality is far less exciting; I could tell that the film-makers were getting desperate when they gradually started to show more and more of Rosamund Pike's cleavage as the dreary plot dragged on—I know it was the only thing that kept me awake to the bitter end.