Jack Reacher

First of all i would like to ask how any of the other reviewers could possibly give this film 1 out of 10? They must have some deep rooted personal reasons for this i guess.

I nearly didn't watch this film for all of the negative reviews. I would have so missed out on something good.

The film was excellent! Great plot. Creepy bad guy and a reasonable amount of suspense. I have never read the Jack Reacher books, so cannot compare Cruise to the title character. I imagine that some people might have been disappointed at the lack of huge explosions and transforming robots etc etc, but this was a fine old school action thriller with many new tricks which i haven't seen before (check the buss stop scene. Classic!). I loved the pacing and the great interaction between players. Sure, some of the one liners seemed a tad forced, but they were not so common. Well done Cruise again.

Do yourselves a favour. Ignore the negative reviewers and give this a go.

Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) is the tale of a very astute ex-military policeman. The army training came in quite handy as he digs into the evidence of a heinous crime that turns out to be not at all what it seems to be on the surface. I was surprised at how funny the dialogue in this film was, it is definitely not a comedy, but the sarcastic and comedic one-liners kept coming, even in situations that were completely devoid of a humorous setting there was some very amusing conversation. There was even a scene in which Reacher is attacked in a bathroom that had me cracking up at the bumbling bad guys. The comedy was heightened even further with the old codger Cash (Robert Duvall). Mr. Duvall always delivers a convincing performance, same here. As with any film that features Mr. Cruise the expectation is that it will be fast paced and very entertaining, same here. The only thing missing was his trademark sprint to or after something or anything. I've just come to expect to see him running, really running but we are getting older. The trailer is the only kind that I like, the ones that do not give away the whole movie. It shows that Reacher is bad a$$ without playing out every aspect of the story. David Oyelowo (Emerson) is one to watch, he is building an impressive resume and it is easy to see why because whenever he portrays a character he is that character. When he played a pilot in Red Tails, I totally believed he could fly a plane. When he was the head of a company experimenting on Apes, I was again thoroughly convinced and I believed every aspect of his being a police detective. One of the best car chase scenes that I've seen lately was in this film. There were so many attributes of this film that I liked, including the sexual tension between Reacher and Helen Ronin (Rosamund Pike) that I will just sum it up by saying. Everything just seemed to be genuine and authentic, even though I know that the fights are staged they looked logistically correct, but Steven Segal did come to mind. I liked that the film had a legitimate beginning and end, even if there are subsequent Jack Reacher tales to follow, there was no gaping wide open door of a final scene leaving the audience wondering 'What's up with that?!?'. But I do hope there are sequels, at least one. I give it a green light

It's a very well made film to be honest, stylishly and atmospherically shot with a neo-noir feel, there are also some good use of locations and the editing is tight and crisp; making the action coherent and not resorting to the often seizure inducing shaky cam technique... The music is energetic and even haunting at times without being brash or overly bombastic, with very effective use of silence.

Werner Herzog is mesmerising as the villainous Zec and he should play bad guys more often in big movies.

While not entirely original, Jack Reacher is both a competent mystery thriller and an exciting action film!

Jack Reacher was a surprisingly fantastic film. I went in thinking, thanks to some slightly misleading trailers, that this was going to be a high octane action movie with a bunch of gun fights, car chases, and explosions but little development and quality. I was completely wrong. While there were a few gun fights, one car chase, and an explosion of sorts, it was done in a completely different manner and was more of an action thriller. Tom Cruise did a great job in his typical role. The rest of the supporting cast was solid enough and the cameo by Robert Duvall was awesome. The plot developed really well and made it more of a "thinking movie" than I anticipated. That being said, the turns in the plot kept the film from becoming stagnant or boring and the action sequences felt real and authentic. I wasn't a huge fan of some of the cinematic elements and there were some flaws in one of the plot twists but nothing that really hurt the movie-watching experience. All-in-all, I'd say this was a great movie that most people would very much enjoy watching.

There was a time—let's call it "The 80s"—when action movies didn't need CGI cheats, shaky-cam and ADD-editing to entertain us. They also didn't have to destroy ten city blocks, have a "clever" hook or feel the need to tack on a social message to justify their carnage. No, all they needed was a reason for some good old steak and potatoes action and a star to anchor it all. 2012's Jack Reacher has these qualities in spades.

Maybe this won't appeal to the eGeneration who need to have their senses constantly bombarded, but for the rest of us, Jack Reacher is a solid bit of retro-refreshment.