Out of Reacher

Rating: 5/10 (22 July 2018)

I'm not familiar with the Lee Childs' novels on the Jack Reacher character but I do remember the media hoopla over the rather diminutive Tom Cruise being cast as a plus 6' male. The other just-as-important matter for consideration is whether he can carry off such a tough-as-nails persona. I know you could argue that Ethan in the Mission Impossible franchise is similarly indestructible but I don't think even that characterisation calls for the sheer cussedness of Reacher here and in the end I think he falls short (no pun intended).
The film starts off with an intriguing set-up as a lone assassin, in a scenario too sadly familiar from real life, ruthlessly guns down five apparently random people. However a series of perhaps too obvious clues leads to an ex-military marksman being arrested for the crime who breaks his silence only to reach out (sorry!) for Reacher to come to his aid.
From there though it goes down a rather predictable set of paths which I personally doubt would be as written in the novel, like the way Reacher takes down five toughs sent to scare him off the scent in the now familiar ninja-style from any number of Marvel / DC movies or even TV series or the inevitable car chase through the night streets of Pittsburgh. I had also guessed the killer's M.O. too although there's a satisfaction of course in so doing.
I also felt that the conclusion in the driving rain as Reacher, with the unlikely help of mean and ornery target range owner Robert Duvall faces off against the Mr Big, his right-hand man and assorted henchmen, as you'd expect taking them down one by one until there were none as the saying goes. Personally I felt a little awkward seeing Duvall's trigger-happy character being lionised as he was, in this day and age.
In the final analysis I felt I'd have probably preferred to read the source novel more than watch this Hollywood blown-up version. I was entertained but too many of the situations and characterisations seemed hackneyed, repetitive and derivative for me to really savour what I had hoped would be a grittier detective drama and not just the outsized actioner it proved to be in the end.