Jack Reacher (2012)

The movie begins with a sniper readying himself in a parking garage and killing five people with six shots. The shooter leaves in the van from which he came and eventually the police come and find the sniper's shooting location. There they find evidence pointing to a man named James Barr, a former sniper for the U.S. army. While the evidence points to Barr, Barr doesn't confess to the killings and instead tells the officials to "Get Jack Reacher."

While the officials have no way of finding Reacher (Tom Cruise), he shows up on his own. Having read the news linking Barr to the shooting, Reacher has come to investigate and determine whether or not Barr is guilty. Unfortunately, the neither Detective Emerson nor District Attorney Alex Rodin allow Reacher to see the evidence and Barr gets beaten into a coma before Reacher has the chance to see him. On his way out, Reacher meets Barr's defense attorney Helen Rodin, the D.A.'s daughter. She looks to enlist his help, but he confesses that he didn't come to clear Barr and proceeds to tell her about Barr's history.

Barr, in his army days, was a highly trained sniper but never saw any action and was just itching to kill. One day, Barr goes and shoots down several people. Fortunately for Barr, the victims were already targets in some manner and he was not tried for his crimes. Reacher, however, vowed to kill Barr if something like this ever happened again.

After some discussion, Reacher agrees to help Helen and the remainder of the movie follows Reacher as he investigates and unravels the answer to whether or not Barr is guilty.

20130601:
At first, I can say this movie had some good action sequences and overall was worth watching once. Unfortunately, perhaps due to weak dialogue or plot, the character "Jack Reacher" was simply not memorable. The name "Jack Reacher" doesn't connect with anything the way "Ethan Hunt" or "Jason Bourne" conjures images of, respectively, an agent dropping down from a ceiling or a fight that involves using a pen as a lethal weapon.

According to those who've read the Jack Reacher novels, Tom Cruise does not look like the Reacher described in the novels and furthermore he fails to behave the way Reacher behaves.

Ultimately, I would recommend fans of Tom Cruise or fans of action thrillers check the movie out. As for those who've read the book, I recommend that if you watch the movie, then try and treat it as an entity independent of the book.

British Airways In-flight Entertainment:
__:__-11:45 Pacific Time = Plane Leaves London
12:45-14:15 Pacific Time = Robot & Frank (2012)
14:45-17:00 Pacific Time = Jack Reacher (2012)
17:30-19:00 Pacific Time = Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
19:55-__:__ Pacific Time = Plane Lands In Baltimore

[20130731]

Instant Comments:
How different in age are Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford? [20130730: Tom Cruise was born July 3, 1962 and Harrison Ford was born July 13, 1942. 20 years!]
The squashed cone.
Quite some attention to detail.
"Get Jack Reacher."
In that scene you just see the suspect's hands for a while.
I couldn't hear Reacher's response to the detective's question about the serial number.
"Who hired you?"
I'm glad the fight had a purpose.
Ha. The serial number.
The connections!
That's intense: biting off your finger. But certainly worth your life.
"Get out of town, Sandy."
"Use it as long as you like."
Morgan freeman? [20130730: No. Tommy Lafitte.]
I found it strange that the people waiting at the bus stop would help a stranger hiding from the law. [20130730: One reasonable explanation I read suggested that perhaps the people at the stop hated the cops so much, that they'd easily help anybody running from the law. Furthermore, Reacher didn't exactly pose any threat, and perhaps it is easier to passively hide a stranger than to risk exposing him and who knows what else he/she might do when threatened. Why... they might freak out and take you hostage or hurt you.]
I suppose everybody likes a vigilante.

Watched 20130601 (British Airways In-Flight Entertainment)
Jack Reacher (2012) Christopher McQuarrie. 130 min [adaptation otn One Shot (2005) by Lee Child]

Relevant Links:
Jack Reacher (IMDb.com)
Jack Reacher (RottenTomatoes.com)
Jack Reacher (film) (Wikipedia.org)
Jack Reacher (Wikipedia.org)

Trailers:

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