movie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, Werner Herzog. David Oyelowo and Robert Duvall
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Genre: Thriller
Running time: 130 minutes
Showing at Cineplex Cinemas
If you have not gotten your hands on Lee Child’s 2005 thriller novel One Shot, don’t fret as filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie (a three-time Academy Award winner) has directed a movie based on the novel. It stars three-time Academy Award nominee and three Golden Globe Award winner. Tom Cruise is Jack Reacher, a trained sniper and now callous killer.
The movie starts with scenes of a parking garage in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania into which a man drives, prepares his rifle and casually shoots five people dead then hurriedly drives away. Police is immediately called in and detective Emerson leads the cops who discover a shell casing as well as the coin used to pay for parking. A fingerprint taken from the coin points to James Barr, a former US Army sniper. When they raid his house, they find equipment for making bullets and the rifle in question so they arrest him. It looks like a solved case but the accused man claims police have got it all wrong and asks them to find Reacher for him. It turns out to be a puzzle and Emerson requests for a review of the evidence against the arrested man.
Jack Reacher is another thriller in Christopher McQuarrie’s collection and the second collaboration with Cruise, who he also worked with on Valkyrie. For the fans of speed there is one signature chase which Cruise performs and says he loved. “The challenge in most car chases is trying to hide the fact that it’s not the actor driving, but the challenge here was trying to find a way to show that it was always Tom driving. He’s literally driving in every stunt sequence.”
The movie has largely received positive reviews from critics with some pointing at a possible sequel. “If Cruise’s fantasy superhero garners as many staunch fans, we may be witnessing the birth of a new franchise,” Kathleen Murphy, a Rotten Tomatoes’ critic states.