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And Jack came tumbling after

Lee Child’s Jack Reacher is a badass. Not the plastic badasses they doll up today’s action movies with. But the men from the 80s who rode Fat Boys in leather jackets over bare bodies carrying pet parrots on their shoulders. In real life as well (that’s Mickey Rourke as he was then).

Reacher needs to be that guy as he is an ex-military cop who is given to investigate cases others won’t touch. He is stoic, hardly talks, breaks bones and beds women. He says ‘that’s for damn sure’, rarely answers when people ask questions, kills the bad boys even when he doesn’t need to. He is judge, jury, executioner rolled into one. Judge Dredd without the bad body suit.

Christopher McQuarrie’s Jack Reacher is Tom Cruise. Had decided to give this one a miss as I knew it would be difficult for Tom to get into the skin of Reacher. And I am a big fan of Child’s books. Tom is too much of a nice guy to play a 80s style badass. My fears came true. Jack Reacher could have been Knight and Day Part II. Cool moves, some mystery, pretty girl who falls for the tough guy and a happy ending. So not Reacher.

In the books, Reacher is described as completely lacking the ‘remorse gene’. ‘It just wasn’t there.’ In the film, Tom gets emotional, comes tumbling down for the pretty lady and gives the bad guys one chance to run away before he beats them to pulp.

But for those who are stuck in the 80s like me, here’s what the film is about: Five deaths take place in a small town. Everybody thinks it’s a sniper gone crazy. The cops nab a crazy ex-military man with a history of violence. The town and its District Attorney wants him to hang.

The man pleads innocence and wants to meet Jack Reacher. Can Reacher save him? Is he really innocent? The story is too damn predictable. But so are the books. Reacher was the factor differentiator. In the film he isn’t. There’s joy in watching Rosamund Pike playing defence lawyer Helen Rodin. And that’s about it. Watch the film if Tom Cruise does it for
you. And if 80s is well past sell-by date for you. 
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