Solid action flick, no surprises.

Rating: 7/10 (11 March 2013)

Jack Reacher is the kind of action flick that comes at once with few surprises and few let-downs. You know what you're getting in a hero like Reacher -- an Eighties-style above-the-law Steely Vigilante whose adventures provide only the suspense of wondering exactly how and when, not whether, he will outsmart the bad guys and mow them all down. Apparently Lee Childs even writes him as a massive muscle man, in which case the decision to cast Cruise was against type... but is also more in keeping with the sleeker modern action star. And unless you came to the film with a specific mental image of Reacher to measure him against, Cruise doesn't falter or disappoint.
Admittedly, there's something a little morbid about watching Tom Cruise as an action star these days, knowing as one cannot help but know that he's a religious nut who actually at some level *believes* all this about himself, that he's some kind of hero and saviour. Creepy as all that might be on the real-life level, though, it works for his acting. He sells the absolute sh*t out of a role like Reacher, committing to it like few other stars could or would, and he's damned entertaining in doing it. The action is solid and exciting all the way through, and even gratifyingly funny in certain spots (you'll see what I mean).
Jack Reacher features some other nice pluses, too: Rosamund Pike as an idealistic and dead-sexy defense attorney, Werner Herzog playing a super-creepy Russian (or Georgian) mobster, a nice cameo by Robert Duvall as an old ex-Marine sniper... it may not be Oscar material, but it's a perfectly solid action flick.