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Post by serin on Dec 27, 2012 5:07:28 GMT -5
I hadnt heard of Jack Reacher until Tom started to film a story with that title. That means I havent read any Lee Child books.
I have seen the film with a friend and we were amazed to realize how good it was..
My friend who is NOT a Cruise fan, was very much impressed by him and by the film .. We agreed that Jack Reacher looked great without those much-talked about inches or feet - I dont mean the Tom Cruise looks.. The way Jack Reacher unexpectedly appears like a ghost in many scenes makes the scene more impressive than it would have made with a 7-feet tall guy..
Another interesting point for me was the way Cruise changed his voice and spoke differently in some scenes - like the shooting scene at the end..
Sadly the timing was very wrong for the film..(R.I.P little angels)
Just a short review from me.. Serin
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Post by serin on Dec 30, 2012 6:25:45 GMT -5
'Jack Reacher' is a vintage Tom Cruise vehicle
December 29, 2012 When popular books and novels are turned into films, they attract a whole second audience of devoted fans and readers that join the general cinema audience. From Harry Potter all the way to the upcoming 50 Shades of Gray movie adaptation, the dedicated book fans of those works commonly develop a mental picture of what they imagine their beloved characters to look like. That's the individual joy of books in fostering imagination. In the case of graphic novels and comic books, gifted artists help flesh that vision out and it's up to Hollywood casting directors to take care of the rest. As I often rant on this website, no movie will ever match the book 100% ever. It's an impossible task of translation, compression, editing, and how filmable or unfilmable certain things on a page translate to the silver screen. When it comes to the character Jack Reacher, the fictional former United States Army Military Police captain created by British author Lee Child (the pen name for Jim Grant) and featured in 17 novels, Tom Cruise was definitely not the person the diehard fans had in mind. According to Wikipedia and Child, Jack is described as 6'5" with a beefy 50 inch chest holding up a nearly 250 pound lean muscular frame, adorned with icy-blue eyes and dusty blond hair. Clearly, that is certainly not the brunette Tom Cruise, who tops out at 5'7" and maybe weighs 175 pounds soaking wet. Unless Chris "Thor" Hemsworth puts down his Mjolnir hammer and gets a haircut or Jean-Paul "Triple H" Levesque puts down his sledgehammer and gets a hair cut, no one marketable in Hollywood matches Jack Reacher's description. Well, Thor was busy and Triple H doesn't sell movie tickets. You're stuck with Tom Cruise, who does sell movie tickets. Deal with it the same way the Comic Book Salesman from The Simpsons has to deal with a 6'2" singing and dancing Australian being a foot taller than a beloved Canadian mutant superhero with claws coming out of his hands. .There are two real questions fans and moviegoers should be asking when approaching Jack Reacher, from Oscar-winning writer-director Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie). The first is whether Tom Cruise can portray WHO Jack Reacher is, not WHAT he looks like. Looks are just the surface. The core of the character is in his decisive action and behavior as the formidable drifter he embodies. Tom Cruise's performance got the stamp of approval from Lee Child himself (who also has a quick cameo in the movie). Shouldn't that be enough? The second real question is whether the completed and compiled movie effort is entertaining. If it can be worth your money and two hours, again, shouldn't that be enough. The answer to both questions is yes. Read the rest here : www.examiner.com/review/movie-review-jack-reacher-is-a-vintage-tom-cruise-vehicle?cid=rss
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Post by serin on Jan 6, 2013 4:36:30 GMT -5
Jack Reacher Hits on all Levels January 5, 2013 Slide show : www.examiner.com/slideshow/jack-reacher-slideshow-1On a calm morning in Pittsburgh PA, the city is shaken with an attack from an experienced sniper who takes the lives of five innocent people. Police are able to identify and capture the suspect, a former U.S. Army sniper who went AWOL on his last tour. The suspect claims he’s innocent and with all evidence pointing at him, he asks for Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) to be found. Reacher is a former Army Officer with a long list of credentials and every possible award to back his name; a trained killer who tracks down trained killers. Nobody knows how to get ahold of Reacher, but when he sees the breaking story on TV, he finds his way to The Steel City. Reacher shows up unannounced to find the suspect in a coma after being attacked by other prisoners. With all evidence pointing at the suspect, and Reacher knowing his past, it looks like an open and shut case. Once the suspects lawyer Helen (Rosamund Pike) lets Reacher know that her client asked for him, he decides to take a closer look into the case. He soon finds himself over his head in a large conspiracy, which is his cup of tea. The further Reacher looks, the closer he gets to find the “real killer”. The Zec (Werner Herzog) has his men go after Reacher, and capture Helen as bait to lure him in. Reacher gets help from a shooting range owner Cash (Robert Duvall). Cash covers Reacher while he goes alone into the lions den to rescue Helen and prove his theory of who really killed those innocent people. Written and Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, we are given an action packed movie with bits of humor and great storyline. The fighting scenes were entertaining and not overdone, the humor was genuine and given the right amount. There’s enough sexual tension between Reacher and Helen to be the “romantic side” of the film and Tom Cruise gives a great performance as a trained killer with nothing to lose.
Examiner.com
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Post by serin on Jan 16, 2013 6:38:01 GMT -5
'Jack Reacher' hits hard and Tom Cruise delivers even stronger
January 15, 2013 With the Sandy Hook mass shooting still fresh in our minds, the opening scene of the new Mystery/Thriller “Jack Reacher” may prove difficult to watch for some. When a lone gunmen publicly targets and executes six seemingly random strangers, the country is stunned. It isn’t long before local law enforcement agencies pick up the trail of this shooter and bring him into custody. Six shots. Five dead. One heartland city thrown into a state of terror. But within hours the cops have it solved: a slam-dunk case. Except for one thing. The accused man says: You got the wrong guy. This so called murderer is identified as James Barr. Barr is given two options: life in prison or the death penalty. Only one man sees fit to bring true justice to this Lee Harvey Oswald wannabe, Jack Reacher. Reacher is a man with nothing to lose, a drifter with ties to nothing and no one.
As irony would have it, this mass murderer has also asked for the help of Jack Reacher, by name. This raises the attention of several Pittsburgh city officials, namely the District Attorney. When he gets into town and makes his presence known, Reacher instantly falls under the watchful eye of every lawful agent in the city: cops, detectives, lawyers, etc. Bringing to this shooter the justice he deserves won’t be as easy as Reacher once hoped. For one reason, James Barr really is innocent.
.The Law Has Limits. He Does Not. Photo credit: Paramount Pictures ..So far I’m sure the plot of “Jack Reacher” doesn’t sound too far off from any normal episode of “CSI” of “Law and Order”. Stay with me please. Slowly the plot of Jack Reacher’s world becomes more intricate and we discover that James Barr has been expertly framed. Framed for what reason? In Operation Desert Storm, Barr trained as an American Army Sniper. After his tour of duty, Barr was convicted of a crime similar to the act that he has been framed for. He got off before, because the people he killed were actually guilty of a heinous crime. During that time, Reacher served as a military police officer and was the man responsible for convicting Barr. Given the wealth of evidence stacked against Barr this time, the odds are not in his favor. Reacher is convinced that Barr is innocent, but can he prove it?
The film “Jack Reacher” is a lot more kinetic and refreshing than it sounds. It hosts some fine acting and a few great action sequences. Now I may have said this before when I reviewed the film “Drive”, but “Jack Reacher” has one of the best car chases since the 1971 film “The French Connection”. Based on the novel One Shot by Author Lee Child, the character of Jack Reacher won’t be as huge a first impression to loyal fans as it was to me as well as other newcomers to the film adaptation. Despite initial concerns made by fans, “Jack Reacher” is great old school action dynamite. We may have the beginnings of a brand new franchise on our hands.
Having no first hand knowledge of the of the novel’s representation of the material and subject matter portrayed in this film; I can’t say with one hundred percent certainty that how good of an adaptation of Lee Child’s source material. If I had to make a guess however, I would say that it is very well done. Before seeing this film, I had it brought to my attention that Tom Cruise doesn’t match at all to what Lee Child had written in his book, in appearance. In attitude, Cruise is a shoein to win Most Badass Character of the Year. It feels like Cruise’s whole career is mirrored by this one character and it shows. He inhabits the character of Reacher effortlessly and it is an awesome force to be reckoned with.
Examiner.com
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