FILM REVIEW OF ''JACK REACHER" (2012)

I enjoyed the new Tom Cruise thriller “Jack Reacher," and I'm not a big Tom Cruise fan.   Since I rarely have enough time to read the right stuff, I haven’t perused any of the seventeen Jack Reacher novels about a former U.S. Army investigator who roams the country like a lone wolf.  Sounds like Cruise is prospecting for another franchise to topline.  Award-winning, bestselling author Lee Child--who writes those novels--is an interesting fellow himself.  Actually, Jim Grant is his real name, and he was born in 1954. A former Granada Television producer, he hails from Great Britain, but has since moved to America.  He has acknowledged that Cruise looks nothing like his literary character.  Nevertheless, he has nothing but praise this Hollywood adaptation by writer & director Christopher McQuarrie.  Chris Hemsworth, Dwayne Johnson, and Liam Neeson might have been better as Child's hero.  Meantime, this intelligent but contrived murder/mystery couldn’t have been released at a more inopportune time.  It will be interesting to see how other major Hollywood blockbusters about gun-toting heroes fare in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.  The worst thing you can say about “Jack Reacher” is that it is a gritty but formulaic police procedural with murky bad guys conducting calculated criminal acts of aggression.  No maniacs break into elementary schools and murder innocent lambs without a qualm. As exemplary as "Jack Reacher" is, this Paramount Pictures release doesn't eclipse better Cruises epics, such as "Collateral," "Top Gun," "Mission Impossible 2," "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol," and "The Last Samurai." 

Basically, “Jack Reacher” (*** OUT OF ****) qualifies as an energetic, above-average, but predictable murder mystery.  Tom Cruise and attractive leading lady Rosamund Pike kindle little chemistry.  At an imposing 130 minutes, “Jack Reacher” couldn’t have made time for a romance between the itinerant hero and the district attorney’s virtuous daughter.  Several scenes are questionable and some things just don’t seem right.  Happily, “Jack Reacher” boasts more hits than misses.  A restrained Cruise appears to be channeling Paul Newman with his laconic performance, but “Jack Reacher” isn’t a role that fits him like a glove.  Basically, this Spartan, low-key thriller could have used a rewrite or two to sharpen it.  Moreover, if screen veteran Robert Duvall—long past his prime—hadn’t shown up for the bullet-blasting finale, “Jack Reacher” wouldn’t be worth jack.  Comparisons between the film and a synopsis of the novel indicate writer & director Christopher McQuarrie hasn’t deviated drastically from the source material.  Consequently, “Jack Reacher” amounts to an origins epic.  Cruise plays an enigmatic character, not unlike the Jim Caviezel character John Reese in CBS-TV series “Person of Interest.”  Resourceful guys like these two live off the grid.  The chief difference is Reacher shuns the kind of high tech support Reese has in the form of computer genius Harold Finch. 

When a deadly sniper guns down several people in broad daylight without warning in Pittsburgh, the local authorities get a break and capture the unsuspecting assassin.  The local District Attorney tries to bully a confession out of their suspect, ex-Army sniper James Barr (Joseph Sikora of “Safe”), but Barr refuses to cooperate.  Instead, he asks them to contact Jack Reacher.  Before his case comes up for trial, Barr is badly beaten up in prison and his life hangs in the balance.  Out of nowhere, Jack Reacher materializes when everybody least expects him. Moments as coincidental as these made me roll my eyes.  Reacher discusses the case with the D.A., and later with Barr’s attorney, Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike of “Die Another Day”), who has taken the case against her father’s stern advice.  Repeatedly, Reacher assures both Helen and the D.A. that he is not a defense witness.  He explains to Helen that Barr left the Army after going on a shooting spree when he didn’t have a chance to rack up any kills in his overseas combat zone.  The more that Reacher investigates the shootings, the more he comes to believe that Barr is a patsy.  Nothing that the real shooter did corresponds with anything that Barr would have done as a trained sniper.  Before it is over with, our hero reexamines the casualties of the massacre and finds the answer to a cover-up that looks like it goes into the highest levels of law enforcement in Pittsburgh, i.e., the Office of the District Attorney. 

Make no mistake, “Jack Reacher” isn’t a high-octane actioneer, but it is both believable and reasonably complex.  McQuarrie keeps our trim, clean-cut hero jumping through flaming hoops throughout most of the action.  An exciting, urban car chase and a no-nonsense street fight enliven the action when a variety of characters aren’t conferring over the business at hand.  Among film geeks, Christopher McQuarrie is known as the guy who wrote the classic thriller “The Usual Suspects.”  Not only did McQuarrie not adapt Lee Child’s crime thriller about a mysterious “Lone Ranger” type who spurns all twenty-first century conveniences to solve crime, but he also directed it.  McQuarrie proves once again that he is a better writer than a director.  Some scenes play better than others.  The supporting cast, including Richard Jenkins as the District Attorney and David Oyelowo as a Pittsburgh detective, are good.  “Jack Reacher” is worth seeing at least once in a movie theater.

Tom Cruise discusses the case with Rosamund Pike while Lee Child, making a cameo as a Pittsburgh policeman, watches them.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE NEXT 3 DAYS''

Academy Award winning writer & director Paul Haggis puts Oscar winner Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks through the ringer as a husband breaking his wife out of jail in the American remake of the 2008 French thriller “Anything for Her.” “The Next 3 Days” (*** out of ****) qualifies as an exciting but implausible suspense saga enhanced by adroitly staged action scenes, top-notch performances from a seasoned cast, and enough red herrings and obstacles to make you want to gnaw your fingernails. Best known for scripting and helming "Crash," Haggis took home an Oscar for writing and directing and the film clinched Best Picture. He received an Oscar for his “Million Dollar Baby” screenplay, and he is credited as one of the creators for the long-running Chuck Norris television series “Walker, Texas Ranger.” Recently, Haggis wrote two of the less James Bond extravaganzas: “Casino Royale” and “Quantum of Solace.”

Basically, Haggis knows a thing or two about actioneers, and he makes an incredible jailbreak seem credible in “The Next 3 Days.” Moreover, aside from its hefty two hour plus length, this pulse pounding, distaff version of “The Fugitive“ remains largely faithful to its Gallic source material. The City of Pittsburgh plays an important part in the plot and “The Next 3 Days” serves as a first-class travelogue for the town. Unlike many movies that shoot city landmarks to authenticate their yarns and then shoot urban scenes in Canada, Pittsburgh has no stand-ins. Pittsburgh natives will probably be the only ones to groan about some of the logistical contradictions of the town. Anybody who has seen the “Mythbusters” television show will know that utilizing air pressure by means to a tennis ball to unlock a door won’t work. However, there are many sites about bump keys on YouTube like the one featured here that our protagonist watches for information. As gripping as PG-13 rated “The Next 3 Days” is, Haggis never lets the violence, drug material, profane language, and sexuality become gratuitously gritty.

“The Next 3 Days” opens in a restaurant as John Brennan (Russell Crowe of “Robin Hood”) and his wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks of “Role Models”) are dining with John’s brother Mick (Michael Buie of “Mystery, Alaska”) and Mick’s wife Erit (Moran Atias of “Land of the Lost”). Workplace politics precipitates an argument, and Erit insists a woman can serve under a man better than a man can serve under a woman. Lara suspects Erit is trying to seduce John, and the two ladies clash. Later, the next morning, Lara and John are enjoying breakfast with their young son Luke. Lara snaps a photo of them. No sooner has this scene of domestic happiness transpired than the Pittsburgh Police Department converge on John’ house. They arrest Lara for the murder of her boss. Lara’s boss was a woman and Haggis inserts a flashback of Lara and her superior arguing. Eventually, Lara storms down to the parking lot and collides with an unknown woman. We see Lara pick up a fire extinguisher. A bystander entering the high rise parking lot spots Lara leaving and notices a woman sprawled on the concrete by her car. Since Lara got into an argument with her boss, the Pittsburgh Police arrest her. They find Lara’s trench coat that she was in the process of washing out a blood stain. The blood stain matches the DNA of her murdered boss. Based on this evidence, the jury finds Lara guilty.

John refuses to believe that Lara could coldly kill her boss and then sit through a diner date without betraying herself. Over the course of the next three years, the predicament John and Lara face grows steadily worse. John’s attorney, Meyer Fisk (Daniel Stern of “Home Alone”), tries to get John to examine the evidence from an objective perspective so he can understand why their appeal failed. Things come to a boil quickly as Lara tries to commit suicide. She doesn’t want to endure a twenty year stretch for murder.

John decides to take matters into his own hands. He contacts an ex-con, Damon Pennington (Liam Neeson of “The A-Team”), who has penned a book about his prison exploits, specifically his many escapes. Damon warns John to be prepared because the police will catch him by blocking off the bridges around Pittsburgh and shoot him on sight. John devises an elaborate escape plan which requires him to enter the criminal underworld. Primarily, John needs forged passports authentic enough to fool the authorities so he can relocate his family to South America. John learns quickly that trying to break Lara out of prison is no picnic. He is nearly caught at one point in the prison using a bump key. Nevertheless, John explores all the possibilities with a scrapbook map plastered onto one wall of his house. This scene and setting recall the ABC-TV series “Prison Break” where the hero sought to break his brother out of prison. John discovers that breaking Lara out of jail isn’t so easy so he tampers with Lara’s diabetes medical folder. Initially, Lara refuses to accompany him when John gets the drop of the cops escorting her.

The last half hour of “The Next 3 Days” moves like a rollercoaster with many surprises to heighten the suspense. A paunchy Crowe looks believable as John Brennan; Brennan teaches English literature at a community college teacher. He is the last person who would embark on such a desperate mission. John doesn’t discuss his ideas with his father and mother. Elizabeth Banks is good as his imprisoned wife. Somewhere along the way, Lara confides in John that she did kill her boss. John doesn’t let this revelation alter his plans. Haggis keeps the action careening along at top speed, and Crowe makes the hero a sympathetic fellow. Crowe’s character shift from a peaceful community college to a gun-toting thug is impressive.

“The Next 3 Days” ranks as an exciting melodrama with surprises galore.