Throwback Thursday Review: 'Jack Reacher'

This week I'm reviewing Jack Reacher as my Throwback Thursday Review to tie in with the release of it's sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and next week I will resume my Harry Potter series with my thoughts on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to be followed up by Thor the subsequent week. Reviews you can expect in the meantime include Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and Keeping Up With the Joneses. At this point I haven't decided if I will be watching Inferno considering that I had no idea it was part of an existing franchise I haven't seen and therefore didn't fit in the earlier films into my Throwback Thursday schedule.

 'Jack Reacher' Review

Jack Reacher shadows ex-military investigator Jack Reacher as he must help solve a case involving five deaths or an innocent man may stand trial for murder he claims he didn't commit. Jack Reacher was based off the Lee Child's ninth novel in the book series One Shot and it certainly delivers in the action department as you can expect from a Tom Cruise-led action flick.

Jack Reacher marked the first of what became a regular team-up between writer-director Christopher McQuarrie and Cruise that thankfully has brought us Live. Die. Repeat. and Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, two terrific action films. McQuarrie's execution, both in direction and his screenplay, is precise, to the point, and fairly well done across the board. McQuarrie cleverly keeps the story personal, ensuring to never raise the stakes too unbelievably high and still maintain an air of realism. I will say the twists were minimal, somewhat predictable, and the villain was one-note, but McQuarrie sure knows how to direct an action scene; including an insane car chase, some visceral hand-to hand combat scenes, and the occasional shoot-out.

The cast is composed of a number of name talent actors and while they do a fine job, they're serviceable at best. Tom Cruise is as charming as ever in the role of Reacher, pulling off the action man swagger only he can. Rosamund Pike fairs well as damsel-in distress lawyer Helen Rodin while David Oyelowo makes for the standard cop.

Jai Courtney plays an precise marksman and formidable physical presence opposite Cruise but has little development for his character whatsoever, and Werner Herzog is as creepy as it gets in his minimal screen time as "The Zec," and Robert Duvall's Cash is a welcome presence.

When it comes down to it, Jack Reacher is what we've come to expect from modern action thrillers and that's precisely it's problem. My biggest qualm with Jack Reacher is that it feels as though it's merely going through the motions, never standing apart from other franchises in the crowded action genre. It's not so much that Jack Reacher is bad, so much as that it's a generic action film. While the stakes and scope in Jack Reacher feel incredibly small, the action sequences are so well executed that it's worth watching at least once and makes for a passable action movie.

Film Assessment: B-