Synopsis: “A homicide investigator digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper who shot five random victims.” (Rated PG-13; 2 hours 10 minutes)
The perfect movie to exemplify how I’m an easy audience. The dialogue was bad. How bad? It’s main quips and big lines were things like:
Bad guy: “WRITE THIS DOWN!”
Tom Cruise: “I don’t need to write things down!!!”
And literally, the dramatic music swells. It was like you were watching a movie that was trying to mimic the dialogue and feel of film noirs from the 40’s, but it just didn’t work.
Oh my, there was a big climactic “figuring it out scene during this movie where I turned to Shlomo and told him that I thought I was watching the hilarious 80’s comedy Clue, because that’s exactly what his deductive speech sounded like. I kept waiting for him to name Professor Plum as the villain.
And Tom Cruise was playing a former military police officer, making me think the entire movie, “man is this a bad sequel to A Few Good Men,” that one had little action but a GREAT script.
Yes, the dialogue was often laughable, there was really no mystery to follow, and the music constantly reminded you that you’re watching a dramatic and exciting movie (there’s that music again while Tom Cruise is saying something hokey, it must be an exciting moment!). BUT…I was entertained! Not only because it was fun to laugh at the silliness of the dialogue, but because the action itself was pretty damn cool. The action scenes (few and far between) were a pretty decent imitation of Bourne movie action, and the car chase was pretty damn good, reminiscent of classic Steve McQueen movie classics, which is appropriate since most people know that Tom Cruise imitates McQueen in doing his own dangerous stunts and stunt driving.
Also, the opening scene of the movie which involves a sniper, is not only done interestingly, but is surprisingly powerful when shown again later, a case of decent film-making in many technical ways, in the midst of a movie with some pretty key laughable elements.
Something to note: one of the main actors was played by the impressive German director Werner Herzog (who made one of my favorite underrated movies, Rescue Dawn), who enjoyed chewing up the scenery; couldn’t he have given a few tips for behind the camera while he was in front of it?
Silly movie, damn entertaining for both good and bad reasons.
The movie was much better than Alex Cross (a terrible thriller from a few months ago where someone was also tracking a killer), but much worse than Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, an amazing comedy/thriller that INTENTIONALLY used film noir dialogue, and it worked!
Quality Rating: C (saved only by the well directed action scenes)
Boaz Rating: B (between laughing at it and enjoying the action scenes, I had a good time)
Boaz's Movie Obsession 
I’m surprised you didn’t compare it to The Usual Suspects and The Way of the Gun, two other Christopher McQuarrie action films. I liked Jack Reacher, but compared to The Way of the Gun it’s forgettable. That was one of the best crime thrillers ever made. Some of the most artfully composed shots you’ll ever see in a film noir, and its slow-moving car chase (the truck is stuck in neutral and coasting down an alley) is a classic. Not to mention the dialogue is as cracking as it was in The Usual Suspects and its plot even more dense and surprising. I could go on and on about how brilliant The Way of the Gun is, but regardless — based on that film, it’s McQuarrie who should be giving Herzog directing tips, not the other way around.
P.S. Awesome that you used the Canadian poster for the blog image — “In cinemas BOXING DAY!” I need to celebrate Boxing Day more often.
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What a great reply Zach, so glad you’re reading this!
THAT’S how I recognized his name, as the writer of The Usual Suspects, should have looked it up!!! Well, I loved The Usual Suspects, obviously was a very cool screenplay, and was helped by the solid direction of Bryan Singer. I don’t know why he chose to write Reacher the way he did, but it just felt silly, and I say that as you know after really enjoying the movie, just didn’t think the screenplay worked, at least not with the way the words ended up coming out of their mouths. Possibly….just maybe under different direction or acted differently they would have been less silly.
Need to see Way of the Gun again, saw it when it came out but honestly can’t remember it other than that I enjoyed it.
And yeah, I was amused by the poster I found, nice catch. 🙂
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You’re just giving it a 4 because you didn’t see the plot twist. I give it a 5 because I was enlightened enough to see it.
By the way, zralston’s avatar looks like an overdone swastika.
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Yes Shlomo, you are the master of enlightenment, it was an honor to see it with you. 🙂
And yeah, Zach, your avatar/gravatar DOES look like a fancy swastika, ha!
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Avatar successfully changed! Now just try arguing with Mos Def!
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Lol
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