Cine Me

 

Perhaps the most purely enjoyable scene comes when Reacher (trained in badass unarmed combat) is challenged to a fistfight by five bullies outside a bar. It's five against one, smirks one. Three against one, corrects Reacher coolly, because the last two guys always turn and run.

 

You can join the bitch squad and complain that five-foot-seven Tom Cruise has no business playing Jack Reacher, the six-five, 250-pound bruiser of an ex-military cop who walks tall and carries a big grudge against authority in Lee Child's novels (17 to date).

Or you can let the physical stuff go and admit that Cruise is good in the role, damn good. At 50, Cruise has a physical dexterity that makes you believe he can mix it up with five guys in a fight scene, take his lumps and still win. Cruise also catches the mental dexterity that puts Reacher ahead of his enemies as he drifts around the country finding trouble.

There are many tasty characters. Perhaps too many. But it's a kick to have German filmmaker Werner Herzog around as a depraved piece of work known as the Zec. Newcomers Jai Courtney and Alexia Fast also make strong impressions on the wrong side of the law. But this is Cruise's show. And he nails it. The patented smile is gone, replaced by a glower that makes Jack Reacher a dark and dazzling ride into a new kind of hell.

 

“Could you put your shirt on, please?”