Title: Jack Reacher (2013)
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Cast: Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Werner Herzog, Robert
Duvall, Richard Jenkins
Review:
Jack Reacher is Tom Cruise starting up yet another
franchise, this time aiming to make a film that’s a bit more realistic in
nature, less fantastic then say the Mission Impossible films, which are films
that give us the action, but not the believability factor. The Mission
Impossible films present us with situations that are way too incredible, way
too out there and way too CGI even for a film that’s called Mission Impossible.
I’m not saying I don’t enjoy that type of film, but I saw Mission Impossible:
Ghost Protocol (2011) and after seeing it couldn’t bring myself to write a review
for it because it was empty calories, a film with nothing much to say. This is
the reason why every once in a while it’s good to get one of these action films
that aims for realism and plausibility. Jack Reacher aims to capture the level
of credibility see in films like Skyfall (2012) or The Bourne Identity films; not
a bad thing to go for when we consider how incredibly cartoonish action films
have become in the recent years. I miss those films where the action used to
happen right in front of the camera. I’m talking about films like William
Friedkin’s The French Connection (1971), John Frankenheimer’s Ronin (1998) or
Don Siegel’s Dirty Harry (1971), you know, films that went through the trouble
of actually making things happen on camera as opposed to the inside of a
computer. Jack Reacher hearkens back to those days of filmmaking, and I liked
that about it.
Jack Reacher is the ultimate bad ass ex-military, the kind
of guy who lives off the grid, no one knows where he is, where he’s going or
where he’s been. He’s a ghost. But he’s a do gooder and if you do something
wrong, as the tag line for the film says “you’re gonna get it”. In this case,
there’s a sniper terrifying the city. He’s killing people randomly off the
streets, the government seems to think that he is doing this to inflict terror
on society; others think he has a more sinister plan. Jack Reacher decides to
use his military skills and detective skills in conjunction with the district
attorneys daughter to get to the bottom of things.
This attempt at realism is something that is dominating
films nowadays. Films and franchises that were once known for being ultra
fantastic and unbelievable, cartoony even, are now changing their ways and
directing themselves towards more realistic situations and premises. A good
example of this are Nolan’s Batman films, when compared to Burton’s or
Schumacher’s take on the character, those films seem like child’s play when
compared to Nolan’s three films. Daniel Craig’s run on James Bond is another
good example. Once Bond was a comic book character with lazers coming out of
his watch, now he doesn’t rely so much on gadgets like these, now he’s all
depressed and out of shape, now he’s got real issues to deal with, he’s not so
indestructible. These are just some examples of films that have changed their
ways because audiences nowadays have requested it. In my opinion, we have the Bourne movies to
thank for that shift. As soon as the Bourne films became huge hits, suddenly
every other movie was copying their ultra realistic style, so in this sense, we
can see the importance of the Bourne franchise, it was a trend setter, from
these films onward, action films have never been the same. And in my opinion,
it’s the series of films that Jack Reacher borrows a lot of its style and tone
from, heck, even the posters are similar in style.
But to be honest, Jack Reacher isn’t really an action film
the way that the trailers might lead you to believe. There’s not much in the
way of action perse, this is more of a detective/crime film, a thriller, a whodunnit.
There’s one awesome car chase sequence
in the film, which I have to say was quite good, but other than that, this film
is more about Reacher snooping around,
asking questions, punching some faces until he finds the answers he wants. The
real strength in this film is the story, which plays with current themes of
terrorism. Remember that case back in 2002? The one with the sniper that killed
ten people in Washington? His name was John Allen Muhammad and he, along with
his 17 year old partner kept a nation in terror for various days, I remember
the people of Washington were so terrified that they didn’t even want to walk
the streets. This crazy sniper was caught and sentenced to death; he was
executed and his partner in crime was given life imprisonment. Jack Reacher plays
with a similar premise of a sniper shooting people on the streets in an apparently
random manner. The Jack Reacher
character comes from a series of books written by author Lee Childs, who has written 17 Jack Reacher novels so far. The particular one that the film is
based on is called ‘One Shot’. Considering how the whole John Allen Muhammad
sniper deal happened in 2002, and the novel was released in 2005, I think it’s
safe to say that Lee Child’s was partially inspired by these real life events.
Director Christopher McQuarrie has only one other directing
credit to his name, The Way of the Gun (2000), a film that slipped through
cinemas practically unseen. I remember renting it and watching it, but not
being impressed by it much. Haven’t seen it in such a long while that I think
it requires a re-watch, maybe my older, Film Connoisseur eyes will find some redeeming qualities in it. McQuarrie did a good job of directing Jack Reacher, my
favorite scene is the car chase, there’s some good camera work there and I hear
Tom Cruise did all actual stunt driving himself. One look at McQuarries resume
and you can see that he’s more of a writer than a director. He has a couple of
really good ones in there, starting with the Academy Award winning screenplay
for The Usual Suspects (1995). He is currently working on Mission Impossible 5,
which he is also trying to direct. I’m guessing that gig will depend a lot on
Jack Reacher’s success, and if box office numbers are any indication, Jack
Reacher is gonna make it. It’s not the greatest film in the world and it doesn't exactly succeed at being 'serious' because some of the dialog comes off as cheesy at times, in fact, there's this one scene where Cruise is talking over the phone to the bad guys and telling them how he is going to make them pay that felt like Cruise was trying to be Liam Neeson in Taken (2008). But the film does have a solid cast that makes the film more than it could have been. Hell, we
even get famed German director Werner Herzog playing a gangster! We get the
always awesome Robert Duvall as an ex-sniper that’s still has a kill or two in
him. Final words? It’s a film that’s trying to bring things a bit more down to
earth, it’s not trying to get too fantastical, this is a film with a firm grasp
on reality and hey, that’s a breath of fresh air in this CGI infested world.
9 comments:
Raw Feisty Action Film, get your adrenaline rushing with this one
Werner Herzog has had to wait almost 70 years to become a Hollywood star and now hes finally got there, i bet hes forgotton all about his European 'masterpieces' already ! ! !.
Happy New Year Francisco, have a great 2013 my old mate.
Eddie: Yeah, I got a kick out of watching HErzog do he's evil gangster thing, I love his films, always an experience.
Jervaise: same to you jervaise!
Definitely give Way of the Gun another look. I really liked it. The main problem is that the film can't live up to it's amazing opening scene. But I love it's offbeat atmosphere and downbeat ending.
Will have to give Jack Reacher a chance. I kind of wrote it off from the trailers but I like the way you've described it. A bit of a throw-back to the cinema of old.
Good review. It's stupid, but still a bunch of fun and it shows Tom Cruise in top, action-form. What else could you ask for?
Jack: I will, I saw it as a teenager and probably didn't really "get it" a review should be up sometime in the near future.
Dan O: Agree, Cruise is trying his best to remain cool, can't blame him for it.
I'd say the "believability factor" is absent from a lot of movies. I just wanted to stop by to say you have a great blog, and that I particularly enjoyed your post about Chillerama.
Cheers,
www.artbyarion.blogspot.com
Thanks Arion, glad you've been enjoying the blog, Chillerama was fun, it wasn't perfect, but is sure made me laugh out loud a couple of times, it kind of reminded me of a Charles Kaufman film, especially when it comes to those scenes with explosive diarreah, can't believe I just typed that!
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