The one merely reached out

Reviewing Jack Reacher “A Tom Cruise Production”

The poster of 2012’s Jack Reacher featuring its starring producer Tom Cruise as the titular character It’s funny to see Cruise carrying the pistol Reacher only uses once in the film. It would be like Vanquish having a poster of its player character Sam Gideon carrying that transforming Russian rifle he uses only in that game’s final Quick Time Event. It just seems funnier to me than character carrying a gun on the poster yet never fires once in the film like in the case of Sound of Freedom.

Full disclosure: I’ve not read one single book written by Lee Child as the time of writing. When it came to thriller novelists, the late Tom Clancy and Ian Fleming were the only 2 rabbit holes you truly went down a long, long time ago. I have not taken notice of Child’s creation, Jack Reacher until early 2022 when this Polygon review led me to watch Reacher on Amazon. “Schwarzenegger movie sure is back with a vengeance” was all I thought after that 8-episode binge.

Now the Amazon series had its season 2 aired and season 3’s production started, I think it’s high time for me to check out the previous attempt to bring Jack Reacher live on the screens: a 2012 movie made by basically the Mission Impossible people. Or maybe it’s a throwaway reference in Reacher season 2 that made me curious. I meant that Amazon show crew was basically saying “No, we are not touching One Shot by Lee Child. Not until after at least one Amazon cancelation, anyway.”

Written and directed by frequent Tom Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, the 2012 action thriller shares both strengths and weaknesses with all the director’s Mission Impossible movies. Well, not really, since Cruise’ Reacher does not come near any aircraft on screen. Still if you want a film screams “Tom Cruise is awesome, starring and produced by Tom Cruise”, this one might be more up your alley than any Mission Possible flick. Since those are legit ensemble pieces while Jack Reacher walks “tall” alone in this one.

Compared to the Amazon show, the 2012 film opens familiarly enough, with “murder most foul” like so many pieces of crime fiction would. We see a thug played by Jai Courtney sniped five random people in a parking lot and across a wide river. Then the police locks on a suspect named James Barr and picked him up. Strangely, this Barr character is not played by Courtney and McQuarrie keep the façade up for about one minute by obscuring his face while the cops start their interrogation. Barr does not talk, only writes down “Get Jack Reacher” and it’s cue for starring producer Tom Cruise to enter this picture.

From here the movie and the Amazon show differ, since Reacher would appear as a gentle giant in the latter while Cruise plays him ice cold in the former. Colder than that rather charming fellow who turns out to be a cold-blooded killer in Micheal Mann’s Collateral in fact. While both seasons on Amazon would have Reacher sharing his insight with people who show crime scene photo to him in the first episodes, Cruise’s Reacher plays it closer to his chest. That would lead to pacing issue. Cruise looking cool in the crime scene with flashback of foul plays from different angles. Audience has no idea what Cruise’ Reacher was thinking until he shares those with Barr’s defense attorney by the way of more flashback. The decision to do so certainly makes this 130 minutes long movie go down much less smooth than Amazon’s 8 episodes runs where Alan Ritchson would not skimp on sharing his insights. This film is really in a pickle with that run time, while the show on Amazon would let the mystery of who and why breath a bit, the feature length just seems too laser focused on Cruise looking cool and mystery taking the back seat.

To hide Cruise being short is almost like a farce in this movie. Cruise talks to 2 women in this movie and both would sit down when he talks. It’s easy to guess that military had drilled the idea of going to opponents’ knees into both on-screen Reachers from the fight choregraph, Alan Ritchson would seemingly aim for the knee but destroy the leg in the Amazon show while Cruise just punches down. When Cruise’ Reacher is framed for murderer in the film, he is described as “One-punch Man”. Really? Did they just take the line from the book without checking the look of their starring producer?

Action is of course the saving grace of this film, but then again when you work with a feature length movie schedule, that is not saying much. Reacher on Amazon is in every way “Schwarzenegger movie slightly better plotted”, that includes the rapid but not that rapid cuts in action. The 2012 film is determined to show its starring producer as the baddest motherfucker in town in profile shot and relative long takes.

Director McQuarrie might get fame for shooting the fights raw with the restroom fight early in Mission Impossible Fallout, but one can see he practicing with a bathroom fight in Jack Reacher, where Cruise fights a couple of comedically incompetent amateurs. The final set-piece set in a quarry does keep one on the edge of their seat, though there is certainly a sense of too little too late. McQuarrie’s style is bit too meandering here especially compared to the “hivemind” behind the Amazon show, but I guess it’s in line with Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning being the longest and thinnest in the series.

All in all, Jack Reacher is the polar opposite to Edge of Tomorrow when it comes to Tom Cruise’ career in the 2010s. It’s critically panned but apparently enough of a commercial success to warrant a sequel while the mere cult favorite also known as Live Die Repeat has no sequel now a decade past. It’s a good reminder that one starring producer’s ego is so not the winning formula for good movie, while if the committee is good enough then “designed by committee” should not be something critics automatically reach for criticizing. When it comes to being up one’s own ass, individuals have the potential to do it a lot worse…