Review: ‘Jack Reacher’ is Too in Love with the Jack Reacher Character

The people behind Jack Reacher, the new film written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie and based on the novel by Lee Child, sure wanted the character to be iconic from frame one. Casting Tom Cruise, as A-list as you can get these days, was a good first step. Unfortunately, the status building and impressive feats of super-intellect do very little in making the Reacher character one for the ages. All that’s before the action even kicks in, and the film suffers, turning what could have been a slamming good action movie into a dull, aimless, overly predictable detective story. At least Cruise is still cool in the role. Read on! Reacher is a drifter, a former Military Police Major with ambiguous loyalties who spends his more recent times sitting on a beach and enjoying life, but when a sniper fires on and kills five innocent people, and the man accused for …