a5c7b9f00b When a sniper shoots randomly five victims, Detective Emerson finds evidence to incriminate the former paranoid marine James Barr. It is an easy case for the prosecutor Rodin, but Barr refuses to sign the confession and he calls Jack Reacher. When he is transported to prison in a bus, the other prisoners beat him and Barr goes to the hospital in coma. The pacifist attorney Helen Rodin, who is the daughter of the prosecutor, decides to defend him but Jack Reacher is a former marine investigator that left the army and has become an unknown drifter. Out of the blue, Jack appears in the city and Helen invites him to work for her investigating the case. Soon he finds that the culprit is innocent and there is a conspiracy behind the murders. When 5 seemingly random people are shot by a sniper an investigation leads the police to former Army sniper who has a history of shooting people in the streets when he was in the Army. When he meets his lawyer, Alex Rodin, all he tells her is to find Jack Reacher. She learns that Reacher is a former Army Criminal Investigator. Reacher upon hearing the news arrives. He learns Rodin wants him to help her defend the guy but Reacher doesn&#39;t want to help him. It seems that Reacher was the one who investigated the shootings he committed when he was in the Army but the Army opted not to prosecute. He told the man that if he did it again, Reacher will come after him. Reacher agrees to look into it if Rodin tries to look at the people he killed. She does and Reacher goes to tell her that the shootings were not the man&#39;s m.o. Reacher suspects someone is framing him. So he and Rodin try to find out why and who. Tom Cruise takes on challenging projects. All I heard and read about was that he wasn&#39;t a good fit for the part because of the physical differences in size, height, etc., and by the time the film ended, I have to admit that I couldn&#39;t have cared less what the character looked like on the printed page. What matter was that Cruise carried the picture quite well, with sheer determination to convince the audience this was a man who was able to think independently and most importantly, that others should take seriously.<br/><br/>Cruise wanders into the middle of a conspiracy to help the authorities bring the guilty parties to justice. He becomes a crime suspectthe investigation deepens, and he has a couple of close callsthe film reaches its explosive conclusion. &quot;Reacher&quot; feels like a 70&#39;s thriller. It&#39;s intelligent, with enough intrigue and twists to make the audience think and keep us engaged. It doesn&#39;t talk down to you, is full of elaborate and unbelievable plot turns. It has the perfect balance of action with the terrific car chase and old fashioned ambush, and there are very intelligent conversationshe and his lawyer friend (Pike) figure what is really happening.<br/><br/>Cruise might not look like a young action hero anymore, but that hasn&#39;t stopped people like Ford and Neeson from scoring big at the box office, and now he is showing some strength in the way he portrays his characters. I&#39;m glad they left out the romantic element, and we see more of a camaraderie or sympathy towards his female colleagues. There is a very touching scene involving a woman who tells him that she expects that kind of mistreatment, and we see through his eyes that he knows exactly what is happening.<br/><br/>Pike is excellentthe attorney who gets trapped in the middle of the conspiracy. She is strong but shows enough vulnerability to carry the final scenes. We are not witnessing the birth of a superwoman, but instead there is this modern, intelligent and analytical human being who knows the situation might be troublesome, but she won&#39;t run away or act like the typical damsel in distress.<br/><br/>I was particular impressed with the cinematography and the music. It validated my belief that Hollywood, when it tries really hard, is able to bring back an era, or the feel of one. Yes, we have cell phones here, but with the inclusion of the Camaro, and the way the camera zooms in and out of some alleys and the quarry scene, I felt like I was looking back at some of Friedkin&#39;s or Coppola&#39;s best dramatic work. There are scenes where you can almost feel the spirit of &quot;The Conversation&quot; come to life, and it is almost impossible to recreate that car chase in &quot;The French Connection&quot;, but I had fun watching this tribute.<br/><br/>&quot;Jack Reacher&quot; is a very good film, and I wouldn&#39;t mind seeing one or two more sequels in the series. Those people who are knowledgeable about the Jack Reacher books would be aware that Cruise is wrong for the role. Too short, not broad chested enough and too dark haired. These shortcomings are apparent in the fighting scenes, you have to believe in the old Hollywood artistic licence.<br/><br/>As farit goesan action thriller the inspiration maybe is a film suchBullitt. This is a thoughtful film, relying more on brainswellbrawn. From early on we know who the killer is, its more a case of why and who is behind the conspiracy.<br/><br/>The film has plenty of sly humour, nasty villains, hard edged action and Rosamund Pike&#39;s cleavage which displays its own acting ability. Director Werner Herzhog makes a chilling villain and Cruise the investigator is believable even if Cruise the pugilist may not be. Even when the film is cool, it manages to be wrong.
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370 weeks ago