Jack Reacher (2012)

 To continue my rant about watching movies on a flight (see 'Admission' blog) it is safe to say that this one kind of stands out as one of the worst high altitude movie watching experiences to date. I made the mistake of starting this movie about 30 minutes before we were due to land in JFK airport. Rather naively I thought that, seen I was only in New York for a week, I would easily be able to pick the movie up where I left off on the flight home. This wasn't the case. After it taking about 20 minutes for me to find the point where I had left the film because the fast forward/rewind buttons were so crap, the film was constantly being interrupted by announcements, the person in front of me couldn't decide whether they wanted to recline or sit up and I kept getting bashed by the air hostesses trolley...and it also didn't help that I had forgotten most of what I had seen previously of the film on the flight out...and I was having a few jet lag issues. Put all that together and it makes for a pretty horrific flight and very few memories of a film that I apparently watched. Oh well, I will still give a blog a go and see what my memory can drag out about this film.

 'Jack Reacher' is based on the book 'One Shot' by Lee Child about a solicitor (Rosamund Pike) and an ex-soldier (Tom Cruise) who investigate the case of a rogue military sniper and his motives for killing five random innocent people. To put too fine a point on it, it's yet another Tom Cruise movie where he runs around and shoots people and drives a lot of fast cars. I would say that even without all my issues during watching this film, it would still quite easily have merged into the many other Cruise films of this nature that I have seen over the past few years. There's nothing hugely original about this film or the storyline and it doesn't stand out at all (just as a quick note, I haven't read the book so I have no idea how faithful it is or if the story in the book is better than the film). The 'twist' is predictable and all attempts to throw you off the scent are pointless and mediocre at best.

 The action sequences are fast and fairly adrenaline fuelled but, yet again, nothing particularly original that you can't find in any run of the mill action movie that Hollywood seems to churn out these days. To give credit where it is due, the fact that Tom Cruise still does all his own stunts is very impressive. Some of these seem pretty dangerous and anyone would be brave to even think about doing them. However, it's just more of the same old stuff from him, with no one else really getting the opportunity to show off. Having said that, I saw an interview with the two leads on a TV show a few months back and Pike stated that she had a stunt in the movie where she has to reverse and nearly hit Cruise and really made out like it was some intense sequence where he could've died if it had gone even slightly wrong. This couldn't be more of an over statement. In the film (if my brain remembers correctly) she reverses slightly (and quite slowly) and stops about 10 feet away from him so he can casually step into the passenger seat. It's hardly the opening sequence of a James Bond movie.

 Anyway, seen as I'm not convinced that my brain is completely accurate about this movie, I will leave it there. However, from what I remember, it is not great and it's not hugely horrific. Just another Tom Cruise action film that promises to be more than it actually is.