Me and my wife watched Jack Reacher a couple of days ago.
The day before that was our wedding anniversary and we had planned on watching a movie. When we got there however, all 4 movies being shown were not our type of movies. The lady at the ticket booth told us the next movies will be ‘The Life of Pi’, ‘ Jack Reacher’, ‘The Red Dawn’, and one other movie but that they will be shown after 2 days.
Showing day came and we got 3 choices. I would have loved to watch ‘The Life of Pi’, but the wife seems drawn to watching Tom Cruise instead of some Hindu kid being lost at sea with a fierce imaginary tiger. “Besides”, she said, “you have already read the Life of Pi book (twice) anyway”. And you know how perfect husbands behave.They always say yes to the wife. So Jack Reacher it is.
Jack Reacher
All in all, I would say it’s a good and entertaining movie. Me and my wife were riveted to our seats most of the time. I had to eat my shawarma (from KFC) without looking down at it the whole time and not minding the stray catsup sticking outside my mouth. It was dark inside the moviehouse anyway.
The part of me who hates too much conflict was surprisingly pleased at the whole movie, not that it didn’t contain enough conflicts, but that there wasn’t much damage being endured by the hero. Some cool movies would have the protagonist being brought down with fatal blows and injuries, but surprisingly recovers in perfect time. Here, Jack Reacher is such an expert at fighting that he never gets hurt badly, or gets hit by a bullet or something to that effect. Well, some folks would rate this as a little too soft, but somehow I like this case as it does not stretch my comfort limits too much.
The story revolves around how Jack Reacher tries to bring to light the truth about the apparent framing of a sharpshooter marksman, James Barr, into a random shooting crime.
Having known James Barr in the past and knowing how he operates, Jack Reacher is convinced that Barr was framed and as the story unfolds, he finds himself being framed likewise. And thus, he embarks on a hunt for the murderer, with only a lady lawyer who is handling Barr’s case and who happens to be the DA’s daughter, as his confidant.
Now my only criteria for a good movie is whether I was entertained or not. I don’t analyse it for any film-making nuances, although I do know how to differentiate good acting and bad acting. This movie? It is entertaining. Now go and watch it.