TOM CRUISE BRINGS JACK REACHER AROUND

I guess the marketing team really liked Drive...
 

Not really liking Cruise as Reacher, and it's not just because he doesn't match the physical description.  The line readings, as fine of an actor as Cruise is, don't work here and they especially don't make me think of Reacher.

Unless this starts to look significantly better, I'll probably catch this on DVD for Herzog.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Harford 

Just wasn't very interesting. Cruise can deliver dialog and beat downs like a pro, but this just feels so very tired. Why should I care about Jack Reacher? What makes him a cooler cat than the other play-by-their-own-rules cops that have populated crime films set in LA for as long as I can remember?

I somewhat agree; this certainly does look like "another film where Tom Cruise is the hero" scenario, so it's a bit hard to get excited for this one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Draco Senior 

Not really liking Cruise as Reacher, and it's not just because he doesn't match the physical description.  The line readings, as fine of an actor as Cruise is, don't work here and they especially don't make me think of Reacher.

 

Unless this starts to look significantly better, I'll probably catch this on DVD for Herzog.

I've never read any Reacher books but I feel like he's a weird fit for this sort of role too. Unless Reacher is supposed to be genuinely batshit, because that's what I get from this trailer. He's not your typical, run of the mill, seen it a thousand times too-cool-for-the-law type of vigilante, he's a legit off-his-meds loon.

I'm in the tank because of McQuarrie and Cruise. But this was just another one of those trailers that cuts together too quick for me. How do you guys form an opinion on this? Burst of action. Some music. More action. Explosion. Shot that says WE GOT A MOVIE STAR. Title. Post-title gag.

The impression I get from this trailer is, "Yes, this is a movie,"

so, Nick Cage wasn't available?

Nic Cage is always available. Birthdays, bar mitzvahs, body disposal, whatever you need really.

Tim Kelly, Looks cool.  I will be...REACHER ing into my pants pocket for some...JACK, to make this a...December to Remember!

He reads as nuts in the books too.

And seriously aside from the first book, this series is the pits.

Looks like Drive/Thief with Tom Cruise. I'm perversely interested in that as a concept.

Edit: Wait, Werner Herzog is playing the villain in a £50m Tom Cruise vanity project? How is this not at the TOP of people's must see lists? Holy shit - SKYROCKETED.

Quote:

Originally Posted by roboTimKelly 

Nic Cage is always available. Birthdays, bar mitzvahs, body disposal, whatever you need really.

No kidding.

I do not understand the Cruise love around here.  I never got him I guess.  He's always seemed bleh to me.  In the "badass" roles he just comes off as pissy, like he's trying to hard.  I understand I'm in the minority here, and everybody just loves Tommy boy at Chud, but to me he's box office poison.  I have little to no interest in seeing a film if he's in it.  Nothing about his performances ever seems natural to me.  I know, I know, his acting shouldn't be tainted by the off screen persona, but his weird antics and the fact that he's Scientology royalty certainly don't help.

Now, onto the film in question...meh....looks like a cheap cash in on the success of Drive.  If any role ever screamed for Nicholas Cage or Bruce Willis, this is it.

The first thing I noticed with the trailer was that the guitar riff was a bit close to the MI theme - it kind of sounded like what was used on that hilarious Scientology video with the Cruiser being bat-shit crazy.  Which I suppose kind of works for the character.

But other than that - meh.  It was Tom Cruise gunning a car and hitting people.  His line-reading was not badass, because Tom Cruise is not capable of badassery.  However, I'll keep an open mind due to the Herzog connection.

So Draco, are these Jack Reacher books worth a look?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mary H. 

His line-reading was not badass, because Tom Cruise is not capable of badassery.  However, I'll keep an open mind due to the Herzog connection.

"Collateral" would like to have a word with you.

Max: You killed him?

Vincent: No, I shot him. Bullets and the fall killed him.

Collateral is a FANTASTIC flick and Tom Cruise is a force of nature.  So I did a little late night investimagatin' and Reacher seems like an interesting character.  People have noted the physical differences, as Reacher in the books is described as enormous, 6'5 and 210-250 pounds of muscle, former special forces/ military police type guy.  Actually, reading that why didn't they cast Dwayne Johnson as Reacher?
 

It'd make the "bullet failing to kill him because of his awesome pectoral muscles" a little more believable.

The problem I have with this first look or whatever is that Tom Cruise doesn't appear to be in "Collateral mode". I've never read the Jack Reacher books, but I've heard the complaints and feel that Cruise is perfectly capable of compensating for his lack of physical resemblance to the character as he appears in the books. However, in the trailer, he looks like he's about to severely scold a Little League team, not unleash unholy hell on a bunch of criminal types.

Yeah, I don't get the knee jerk DRIVE comparisons, either.  He's also driving a car, okay.  Don't remember the Driver wielding a machine gun.  Or delivering special forces style beatdowns.

I've only read one Reacher book,  and Cruise is definitely not the physical type I pictured.  Still, McQuarrie and Herzog in the thing?  Down.

Isn't Reacher a poor driver?

The book I read, Reacher usually took the damn bus. 

The car is banged up, though.  May still be a poor driver.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeman 
 Actually, reading that why didn't they cast Dwayne Johnson as Reacher?

 

Probably because this isn't a kid's flick and the producers probably wanted the film to make money.

I give up. I have tried my damndest to give this a shot but I cannot do it. Cruise is the worst choice for Reacher this side of Elijah Wood. I can't deal with it. Angela Basset would have been a better choice for Reacher than him. 

Ryan Hurst should have been Jack Reacher. Beginning and end of discussion.

I was hoping Cruise would pull a Tom Hardy and mould his tiny figure into a muscled rage monster. Judging from the fight at the end of the trailer, he didn't. Looks like an incredibly generic thriller.

I haven't seen much of SOA, I'm curious why this pick?

He matches the physicality perfectly and has that old school Walking Tall kind of aura so necessary for Reacher. Other good picks would be Ray Stephenson or Chris Hemsworth.

Bottom line: We need new faces in franchises. And I am a Tom Cruise apologist saying this.
 

Indeed. Nice one with Hurst. A bit younger than I'd like but much better than Cruise.And I'm a Cruise apologist too.

I'd buy an advanced ticket if Ray Stevenson was in this.  That guy needs to be in many many more films.  Hemsworth?  eh.....maybe.  He just seems too much like the nice guy next door who helps the old lady down the street carry in her groceries.  Can you recommend a film with Hemsworth playing a dangerously unbalanced nut?  Don't say Thor......

To Mr. Cruise and Mr. Depp, gentlemen there is this old saying, absence makes the heart grow fonder.  We can't miss you if you won't go away.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Naisu Baddi 

 

Max: You killed him?

Vincent: No, I shot him. Bullets and the fall killed him.

It's always bugged me that people mistake this for good dialogue.

Regardless, Cruise kills it in that movie.

When I read a Reacher novel I always imagine Ed Harris.  You know it to be true.  Hard boiled, grizzly, not young and soft like all these other actors mentioned!

Yeah someone should have called Sam Elliott

The trailer didn't do anything for me. A cop that plays by his own rules and drives a vintage muscle car; I've never seen that before.

If the character is the same as the novel, he's ex army intelligence, not a cop.

Actually, Reacher is an ex-MP.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Electrichead 

Actually, Reacher is an ex-MP.

But wasn't it some secret intel type MP?  Probably talking outta my ass, but the one book I read, he called back to his former office, and the lady who was now in his old position supplied him with all kinds of intel. 

Reacher as some sort of super-special MP badass is one of the most adorable things about the novels.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keith F 

 

But wasn't it some secret intel type MP?  Probably talking outta my ass, but the one book I read, he called back to his former office, and the lady who was now in his old position supplied him with all kinds of intel. 

I'm no expert here, but that sounds familiar. I think that it may have been more that a former coworker had moved into a better position and owed him a favor. He tends to just use the ole "we're in this shit together, chasing the same bad fuckers" kind of argument with the law enforcement people that he gets to help him out.

Having just read "Tripwire" last week, I can say for sure that he was an Army MP. Whether it was Army Intel or not may have been in another book.

Is this movie based off any book in particular or just a bunch of shit they culled together and called a script?

I just don't see it working with Cruise, one of Reacher's ways of getting shit done was his physical intimidation over the people he was up against. In that damn Tripwire book, as dorky as it sounds, he was able to absorb a .38 round to the chest because he was just too damn big and buff for it to kill him.

It's the ninth book, evidently. 

I approach the Reacher books the same I do B action movies. They're industrial products, by the numbers, with the occasional flourish getting a "FUCK YEAH!" out of me. As to his various qualifications they always remind me of Steven Segall movies. Whenever they're described, the speech from On Deadly Ground plays in my head.

I don't much care for the books, or even the idea of an actor matching the physical qualifications(I've been thinking since Hanna that Eric Bana could easily do the part justice), but Cruise is just wrong here as Reacher. Bana is already a big guy and he could always bulk up more.
 

Not only does he fit the physical description, he can act as well. He was awesome last season on SOA. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freeman 

Collateral is a FANTASTIC flick and Tom Cruise is a force of nature.  So I did a little late night investimagatin' and Reacher seems like an interesting character.  People have noted the physical differences, as Reacher in the books is described as enormous, 6'5 and 210-250 pounds of muscle, former special forces/ military police type guy.  Actually, reading that why didn't they cast Dwayne Johnson as Reacher?
 

And pecs so awesome they can stop a bullet!*

(Seriously, that's in one of the books. Child can be a decent writer and I'd like to see a non-Reacher book from him because of that, but the books are increasingly dumb as shit and Reacher is an ultimate Mary Sue)

*I want to see this in the Cruise movie.