Fantastic crime drama

Rating: 9/10 (31 December 2012)

Based on Lee Child's novel "One shot" Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) agrees to help out attorney Helen (Rosamund Pike) who believes her client is innocent over 5 shootings.
Having worked in a library for numerous years I have heard many people praise Lee Child's books and get them recommended them to me weekly but I have never picked one up. If the books are as exciting and imaginative as this film, I will rightly hang my head in shame.
One of the first things I uttered as I left the cinema was "That might arguably be better than Skyfall" Now having looked at the case I was possibly out of line, but this should be praised in equal measure.
Tom Cruise's casting as Reacher was frowned upon by die hard book readers but he does an amazing job as a rough ex military cop here. Doing his own driving stunts and forever casting a rough look at enemies mixed together with great one liners makes Reacher an appropriate tough and clever presence to drive a great crime story forward.
The film opens with a sniper in a multi-storey car park taking out innocent people and only the district attorney's daughter believes the man is innocent. The balance of crime with drama and character conditions is well balanced, creating a flowing nature to the film and appropriately developing character agendas to maximise their beliefs and actions.
My favourite part of this film was the car chase. How many action films overdo their action sequences and completely unrealistic car chases? Not this one. Cruise doing his own driving mixes action and adrenaline fuelled realism to create a lively insert into the film when at the time it appeared no action was forthcoming.
This is no Die Hard. There isn't crime action around every other corner this is a deep thorough crime investigation with discussion but fear not the car chases, the fighting scene and a great final segment combined with the provocative story make this a fantastic film. Now, off to the library!