Wolverine, the most popular of the X-Men and one of the most popular comic book characters in comic book history is also one of the shortest. According to thirty plus years of continuous publication, Logan - AKA wolverine - is 5'2" tall and somewhere around 200 lbs, with metal infused skeleton and claws, and a back as hairy as a Kodiak bear. When X-Men director Bryan Singer cast a slim 6'3" song-and-dance man named Hugh Jackman to play the short stocky Wolverine, comic book geeks everywhere said "What the f***?"

Now anyone familiar with the Jack Reacher novels written by Lee Child knows that main character of the novels is a 6'5" 250 pound blond haired blue eye bruiser with the face of a professional rugby player. And likewise anyone who read the novels must have said "What the f***?" upon learning that the diminutive Tom Cruise was cast to play Jack Reacher. "He's too small. He's too Pretty." My wife, who's a huge fan of Lee Child's novels, was so irritated with the casting choice that she refused the see the movie.

For those of you not familiar with Lee Child's novels, the title character is military veteran who hobos around America with nothing but the clothes on his back and the money in his pocket. He avoids relationships, responsibilities and even posessions that might tie him down. He doesn't even own a suitcase. When his clothes get dirty he throws them away and buys new cloths. He rides from town to town on Greyhound busses. He generally minds his own business, but always seems to find himself at the center of a mystery or conspiracy that requires his investigative instinct and brutal hand-to-hand skills to solve.

The movie begins with a sniper shooting down four people in Pittsburg.Read more ›

The main complaint I heard and read before JACK REACHER ever even hit theatres was from fans of Lee Child's series of books about this film's titular character, and it was always the same complaint: "Tom Cruise is too short! Jack Reacher is 6'5" and is built like a brick outhouse!!" And my response to that was always: "Can you think of an actor who's really good, does action well, has a lot of charisma, and IS ACTUALLY built like that?"

Christopher McQuarrie, the Oscar-Winning screenwriter of Bryan Singer's unforgettable THE USUAL SUSPECTS, and the writer/director of the very forgettable THE WAY OF THE GUN, picked up his pen and got back behind the camera for this potential franchise first outing for the cinematic adventures of Jack Reacher (Cruise), former Army military police investigator. He's, as they say in the film, a ghost. He has no fixed address, no credit cards, no phone number. In fact, the only proof of his existence is a bank account, his military record, and his military pension. He buys his clothes from Goodwill as needed and donates the old ones, hops on a bus, and goes wherever the day takes him. But in a very disturbing and wordless opening sequence, a man with a military-grade sniper rifle shoots five people in front of PNC Park in Pittsburgh. All the clues lead back to Army sniper James Barr (Joseph Sikora, who spends most of the film in a coma) as a man who just snapped. The lead District Attorney (the great Richard Jenkins) is pushing for the death penalty, but the defense attorney for Barr, Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike) is looking to stop that from happening. It also happens that Helen is the daughter of the DA. When told to confess, with all the convenient evidence stacked against him, Barr only has one thing to tell them: "Get Jack Reacher".Read more ›

I'm the first to admit that going into this film I had low expectations. Cruise is a decent enough actor and well suited for the genre, but the plot seemed derivative and overly pedantic, just another flick I'd catch because...well...I'm a dude and the preview mentioned something about guns and explosives.

Surprisingly, the plot played out steadily, not needing to be propped up by a few well placed action sequences. While, if you've seen any movie ever in your life, you'll be able to predict what's going to ultimately happen, "Reacher" maintains a consistent level of intrigue and charm through the whole length of the film. I appreciated that the action scenes actually added to the plot. I was expecting some random "Look how awesome I am at fighting" scenes tossed into the mix, and was happy to see that while those scenes are absolutely in there, they also help move the plot forward. Good thinking, action-movie-maker-people (pretty sure that's the correct technical job title, but don't quote me on that...)

In sum, without telling you a thing about the film (because I hate summaries that are just spoilers in disguise), you can feel good about spending your money on this one. You'll enjoy it. Even if you hate Tom Cruise. That's right, I'm talking to you, Katie...

JACK REACHER
Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, and others, including Werner Herzog and Robert Duvall

I saw Jack Reacher this weekend. I went mostly out of curiosity: I've read every Reacher novel written by Lee Child (some of them bought through Amazon) and loved them.

I knew Child's Reacher and Cruise's would be different animals. Child's Reacher is 6' 5", between 210 and 250 pounds in different books, and has a 50" chest. Cruise is 5' 7" and probably weighs, stripped down, between 140 and 150 pounds. Even as fighters (which is one of the things Jack Reacher has to do every so often), they'd fight differently -radically differently--because there's no way a 150 pound, 5' 7" tall man could do some of the things an oversized behemoth like the original Reacher does. And though neat, like an ex-military man would be, Lee Child's Reacher is always a little scruffy: he buys his clothes one set at a time, throwing away the old ones, because he doesn't like to travel encumbered, and until then, he washes them out in the sink of whatever motel room he's staying in. Tom Cruise's Reacher exhibits the same behavior as Child's Reacher in this regard, but Cruise's Reacher always looks neat, just as Tom Cruise does himself.

Enough carping on appearance. The critical question is how well does Cruise do as Reacher, and the answer is `okay.' Not great, not even near it, but okay, not a total embarrassment.

Nor is the movie a total embarrassment. There is a good fight near the beginning when five local thugs take on Reacher to teach him a lesson.Read more ›