Netflix Flick of the Week: “Jack Reacher”

I've got a confession. I will watch anything with Tom Cruise in it. Anything, no matter how bad. I watched Rock of Ages just because Tom Cruise was in it. I watched Cocktail, a movie in which Tom Cruise flips bottles and sleeps with rich women in New York City for half an hour, in Jamaica for half an hour, and then in New York City for another half an hour, with only the barest hint of a plot holding it together, and enjoyed myself. The man's one of the last true movie stars, carrying terrible scripts on nothing but raw charisma and swagger. So, when Jack Reacher popped up in my “Recommended Movies” list, I stopped my current TV marathon (Burn Notice, in case you were wondering) because, hey, Tom Cruise.

The first thing of note about Reacher (by director Christopher McQuarrie) is the length. When I saw the preview image, Tom Cruise standing in front of an American flag, vaguely glowing, I expected this movie to be a tight ninety minutes, moving from action setpiece to action setpiece with vague exposition in-between. Instead, the movie stretches out into two hours, most of which is filled with semi-obvious investigation and moderately cliche dialog. It's an odd fusion of crime thriller and mystery film, where every time I thought something was a little loose, it turned out to serve a purpose in the greater whole of the plot.

While otherwise this movie wouldn't hold together, the cast keeps the movie running. The secondary cast alone is full of big names. Werner Herzog, director/writer/actor, plays our villain, giving the caricature Russian crime boss some real life, and Robert Duvall brings some real pedigree to the movie as Cash, our grizzled old soldier. Also notable are Richard Jenkins, recognizable from the recent hit Cabin in the Woods, and Michael Raymond James of Terriers, gone too soon, just like his television show. However, in a two-hour movie, none of these side characters is given much to do, and most don't get more than twenty minutes of screen time, total.

Instead, the show is owned by Cruise and his co-star, Rosamund Pike, here showing off an American accent and an impressive range. However, she doesn't get much to do next to Cruise's Jack Reacher, who is always one step ahead of everyone else, no matter what's happening. He's a man with a mysterious unknown past, murky morals, and the skills you need to get the job done, and if that sounds cliche to you, it pales in comparison to some of the dialog written for the character. He actually speaks the sentence “I'm not a hero”, which alone should be cause for alarm, but when combined with the skills to shoot every gun, drive any car, fight any gang, and a photographic memory to boot, he's almost superhuman.

And you know what? The fact that he was almost borrowed from a straight-to-VHS action movie from the 1980's didn't matter as much as it should have. This is the kind of role that Cruise excels in, taking a larger then life character and making him at least seem believable. He's cool and confident, and that sells the fact that the audience should at least attempt to take Jack Reacher seriously as a character. I dug it, but then again, I'm not the most objective viewer of that (remember, Cocktail).

If you're like me, and you'll watch anything with Tom Cruise in it, then this is a must-include in your queue. Ditto if you're into superhuman witticism machines. If you're looking for a way to kill some time, this isn't a bad one, but if I'm being totally honest, and I am, you could probably do better. The two-hour run time hurts, and if you're not into the Tom Cruise variety show, guest-starring the rest of the cast, you're not going to have too good of a time.