You've heard this one before a hundred times, but the secrets in the way you tell it..

Rating: 8/10 (9 January 2013)

The gruff loner who rides in, cleans up town then rides off again, the spunky heroine who ends up a damsel in distress, the innocent man framed for a crime he didn't commit, sinister cover ups, a ruthless 'cattle baron' after his own version of manifest destiny backed up by his smiling killer Right-Hand man whose deadly pissing contest with the hero ends in a mano-a-mano under the pouring rain, an apparently random massacre designed to take out one specific target, a parlour game of 'guess the traitor' from a list of equally shifty authority figures, the salty old Indian fighter who can still fire a rifle real good, the tart with a heart of gold who comes out for the hero in the end,bullet spattered final battles in a night time quarry. Car chases, fist fights, shoot outs, foot chases, every Thriller/Western cliché is present and correct here.
Based on one of Lee Child's popular pulp novels, it's a mixture of very old and familiar ingredients, nothing new or original here at all. However the real power of a joke, song or story is in the way you tell it and that is where the film's real strength and pleasure lie.
Christopher McQuarrie moulds what could have been just another generic thriller of the week into an entertaining and gripping ride down this familiar territory with real class and style. One key to its power lies in its deliberate retro vibe, taking all its cues from the tough mean thrillers of the 1970s. Right from the chilling opening sniper sequence (evoking similar moments in films like "Dirty Harry" and "Two Minute Warning") to the extended car chase between a Chevy Chevelle and an Audi RS6 through a deserted city centre with no music save the revs and the tyre squeals, through the minimal strings and bass score, down to the 'natural justice' code of the hero who lives by a definite morality that exists beyond niceties like law and evidence and includes summary execution and vicious beating of wrong doers, it takes us back to a harsher, crueller time where brutality, hopelessness and nihilism was done with effortless style. In fact it is just the sort of movie John Frankenheimer might have made now had he not passed onto the great beyond.
Tom Cruise has been criticised for 'not being the character in the books', and that may be true, but he uses his film star power in the same way Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Charles Bronson and their contemporaries did back in the 70s to ground a movie in just their presence, distracting us from the sometimes unpalatable and even overtly Fascistic things they do with their easy charm and store of goodwill. Cruise has played tough guys before, and though he may not be the Schwarzeneggerian figure of the novels, he is a good enough fit. It's nice to see the lovely Rosamund Pike headlining another major movie after last years "Wrath of the Titans", having been a fan of hers since her fresh from drama school breakout in "Die Another Day" ten years ago, and I hope we'll be seeing more of her soon. Though not spectacular, she makes a good heroine and co-protagonist here. Richard Jenkins as her father is also good (another actor who lights up a movie) as is David Oyelowo as the cocky detective in charge of the investigation. Jay Courtney makes for a fine strong right hand, cruel and cold blooded in the service of his master, and physically menacing as well, he is a perfect antagonist for our Nietzschian hero. Alexia Fast as the tart with the heart of gold is memorable, both sexy and vulnerable, you end up caring for her fate. The strangest casting call is of course the legendary director Werner Herzog, who's 'cattle baron' villain is cruel but also very wounded. In keeping with the current trend, he is not evil per se but made what he is by the cruelty and horror inflicted upon him, having turned himself into a man of ice in order to survive the Soviet concentration camps in Siberia, and thanks to Herzog we can still see the soul buried beneath the snow.
The film, as you would expect is very violent and brutal, and it can only have been Cruise's star weight that got the movie a PG-13/12a certificate given that is on a par with any of the "Lethal Weapon" series. Avoid if squeamish (saw a few eyes covered up in the audience) and don't bring the little ones!
There are many more Reacher novels, making this a potential franchise spinner for Cruise to go alongside his long running "Mission Impossible" series. Though he may be considered a fascist vigilante by many, Reacher is the sort of hero we look to in these troubled, frightening times, strong, uncompromising, who does 'the right thing' by bypassing all those fussy little niceties like rights, law and civilized values!