What
can be said about the movie Jack Reacher? One thing comes to mind – okay, two
things. The first one though, and a big one, is that the explosion of rock and
ground that is in the preview is not in the movie, although I was not as offended as some were about the explosion’s omission from the movie.
The other thing is that Werner
Herzog is in this movie. Don’t know who he is? Leave my blog. Know who he is
and love his work? You’re on thin ice.
I know the guy’s work; have seen
maybe 3 of his movies, one I hated, the other two I liked. His documentaries
always sound interesting (I saw the one about the bear loving guy, it was interesting,
and had I seen it at home over two maybe three days I would have enjoyed it
more, as it was I did not enjoy it in the theatre) but the one I saw was a bit
dry and difficult to enjoy on any level of interest, and the other movie I
enjoyed the most of all his movies was a mainstream movie he directed of a documentary
he did of escaped POWs during the Vietnam war.
So this guy appearing in a big
budget movie was interesting, and made me wonder while I sat through the movie
why Werner Herzog agreed to be in it. It’s not a bad movie by any means, but
certainly not the sort of thing you’d expect for Werner Herzog to make an
appearance in.
My wife and I watched this one and
she said it felt like an 80’s action movie, which I wasn’t sure how she got
that, but the more we watched, I could kind of agree with her. I took the “80’s
action movie” as an insult, but it’s not, there were several good 80’s action
movies, it’s just the bad ones that get the attention. The fight that takes
place just outside of the bar is pretty 80’s I’d have to agree, but done in a
more current style that makes it a nod to those movies instead of a movie that
is trying to hold onto those movies (see any major action movie star in a major
action movie any time from the 90’s on (or check out The Last Stand – on second
thought don’t, and I’ll share with you why in the next review)).
The shoot out at the end is nothing
new really, but how different can you make a shoot out, really? When Jack
Reacher meets up with Robert Duvall, it certainly felt like an older style of
movie as well, even as far back as a John Wayne movie when the younger guy in
trouble meets up with the crazy old man who saves the day.
Not a lot of surprises in Jack
Reacher other than the fact that the story and movie are actually pretty good,
with the low hopes that my wife and I had, we were pleasantly surprised, and
another surprise was that both my wife and I really enjoyed the car chase. My
wife pointed out that it had been awhile since we’d seen a movie that had a car
chase in it and at the end of the whole scene she commented that it was pretty
fun and I had to agree, I liked it quite a bit.
It’s more of a thriller with one big
shoot out, a couple of good fights (the fight that starts in the bathroom is
pretty weird with its out of nowhere comedy but I liked it and my wife didn’t
really care either way) and the car chase that was a welcome surprise, the way
it was shot was exciting and the sound was pretty awesome and the set up and
the stuff that happens during it was pretty much worth seeing the whole movie.
I would definitely check out another
Jack Reacher movie, I think they just need to maybe play more to the people who
are gonna see this type of movie. The preview plays up the car and the chase
but that’s a small part of a much longer movie (he doesn’t even get the car
until later in the movie) so if they changed things to actually fit what they
advertise the movie as I think this could be a pretty big movie franchise.
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