disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (13 July 2013)

"Jack Reacher" isn't my type of movie, so hence the middling score I gave it. This isn't to say that Tom Cruise and the rest of the cast didn't do a good job. I just think I had a misconception of the film before going in.
Cruise is the mysterious, effective Jack Reacher, a man who makes promises that he can and does keep, an amazing combat fighter and one just all around tough guy. And Tom Cruise looks the part. For all the hoopla about how great he looks turning fifty, this was no glamor part for him. He's not photographed particularly lovingly, which is right for the role.
Five people are shot by a sniper, and the police accuse an Army sniper with a similar history. The man is shot and in a coma, but he's able to write a name on a piece of paper: Jack Reacher. Reacher is a former Army criminal investigator.
Reacher shows up but he wants to put this guy away, as he once promised he would as the Army didn't prosecute him for similar killings. If this man, Barr, summoned him, he did so because he knew Reacher would find out the truth and do the right thing. In other words, this guy has been framed.
Reacher and the man's attorney (Rosalind Pike) work together looking at the victims and then trying to figure out who framed Barr and the real goal of the shootings. He realizes that these shootings were not Barr's m.o., and he soon finds himself the target of some very mean men.
This is a good story, but my kind of action story are the Mission: Impossibles, the Bourne films - I will be honest and say this one was too violent, too mean, and, dare I say it -- too realistic -- for me. I like my action couched with a certain amount of suspension of belief. You do need that here for some of the shootouts, though.
If this is your kind of action film, you will love it. It certainly has the acting, the production values, the hard, cold atmosphere, the car chases, the violence, and the blood. It's done very well. Being squeamish, I won't be watching it again.