Much ado was made about Tom Cruise’s casting as the title character of Jack Reacher. The character as he appears in Lee Child’s series of crime novels is a hulking brute of a man, and Tom Cruise is a pretty little movie star. Cruise has long ago proven that he makes for a capable action hero though, so if you’re able to get any preconceived notions that come from being a fan of Child’s Reacher novels out of your head, most should find director Christopher McQuarrie’s adaptation of “One Shot” to be a perfectly palatable action film.
Palatable being the key word, because nothing here is great. McQuarrie’s adapted screenplay can feel a bit too wordy and overwritten at times, there are a couple moments that get slapstick or silly and feel out of place with the rest of the film, the acting is hit or miss depending on the performance (David Oyelowo is impressive, Rosamund Pike too one-note), Reacher is too much of an infallible superman for his exploits to have real stakes, and German director Werner Herzog—while having one of the best voices for a film villain ever—appears to be so disinterested playing the villain here that he didn’t even seem to be willing to stand while filming most of his scenes.
Still though, the action scenes are fun enough to keep fans of the genre engaged. The fight choreography is great. It’s able to sell you on the fact that a guy as small as Tom Cruise is tough enough to be a world-beater, and McQuarrie shoots it well enough that you’re always able to follow and appreciate what’s happening on the screen. And at two hours and ten minutes, you might think that a movie like this would wear out its welcome, but Reacher is paced well enough and the mystery at its center is engaging enough to carry you through the run time without ever having to look at your watch. This isn’t the sort of movie that one seeks out, but it is the sort of movie one gets overjoyed to discover on cable some lazy afternoon.
