Ethan Hunt recycled

Rating: 7/10 (29 December 2012)

Fans of Lee Childs's long-running thriller series went into a hissy fit when vertically-challenged brunette Tom Cruise was cast as six-foot-plus blonde super-hunk Jack Reacher, but - hold your horses, guys! - little Tommy does a decent enough job of 'morphing' - one could even say recycling - his Ethan Hunt persona into Jack Reacher.
Reacher is a kind of freelance vigilante called in by hotshot lawyer Rosamund Pike whose client is the fall-guy for a 'spree' shooting in Pittsburgh. Reacher quickly carves a swathe through assorted thugs and corrupt cops. The tone of the film is oddly low-key, but writer/director Christopher McQuarrie shoehorns in a series of violent fights, car chases and shoot-outs which add a jerky momentum to the movie.
There's no chemistry between Pike and Cruise (to be fair, the plot doesn't call for any), and the bad guys have been recruited from Rent-a- Thug with Werner Herzog slipped in as their leader without any motivation that I could fathom. Robert Duvall almost steals the movie in a cameo role as a shooting-range owner. The lack of back story to both Reacher and the villains leaves a gaping hole in the plot. Ultimately, like the MISSIONS IMPOSSIBLE, this is simply a vehicle for Tom Cruise. Luckily for us, he seems to have a bottomless supply of on screen charisma which allows him to slip into a role that is more than a little reminiscent of Clint Eastwood's nameless avenger in those early spaghetti Westerns.
If there are to be sequels (Lee Child has written more Reacher novels than Fleming original Bond stories), Jack Reacher will need to have some flesh added to his well-toned bones. This is better than some of the weaker 007 movies but it is nowhere near as edgy and suspenseful as any of the Bourne franchise.