Saw Jack Reacher a few hours ago and totally dug it.
I’ve drifted away from babbling about movies in this blog, because I’ve found a small group of co-workers who are willing to email obsessive dissection back and forth. well, maybe they mostly make lists or try to be brief, and i rant like a crazy person. but. that’s why I haven’t posted more. I still watch way too many movies, and think way too much about them.
So i sent them an email a couple minutes ago, and thought “hell. i should start pasting these email rants in my blog. THAT’S WHAT IT’S FOR!”
… I also keep thinking that watching (and then sloppily reviewing) any more movies would be a huge waste of life. I should be out there making shit, and/or doing shit. but. while that thought slowly undermines my very being, I have at least this one scattered rambling review left in me to sneeze out onto your eyeball screens.
so.
ahem.
I wrote:
Saw Jack Reacher a few hours ago and totally dug it!
Despite Tom Cruise being horribly miscast (just as he was in Collateral), i think he did a great job!
(and I suspect he is probably the only reason the movie got made? ie, he was gonna try to play a giant badass motherfucker, again, in something. he probably figured his career needed it. so if it had to happen, i’m glad it was handled as well as this. now let us all bow our heads and hope little beautiful likable mr. cruise doesn’t keep doing this sort of thing).
(p.s. that dude is gettin’ OLD. There was a shirt-off scene that I guess was meant to make the ladies swoon. but all i could think was “shit, maybe he IS old enough to play this kind of part.” I hope he doesn’t keep taking his shirt off. he may work out a lot, but you can just tell when a dude’s skins starts to sag in a creepy reminder-that-we-all-die-wrinkly-someday sort of way)
maybe minor spoilers? kinda? not really? nothing worse than what was hinted at by the trailer?
Overall, I’d recommend it [to mainstream movie friends] as sort of a Bourne Identity meets Payback meets… some mainstream legal thriller (can’t decide which legal thriller would be appropriate. The Lincoln Lawyer?)(too soon?), with a smattering of great one liners and fast moving conversations sprinkled on top – by the genius, Christopher McQuarrie. It was slightly dumb and pulpy, like a john grisham novel. ok. but that also let it have a some charming “fuck yeah!” audience pleaser moments that you probably couldn’t get from a more serious or more arty movie. the random rad muscle car, for example. Hot damn, it was thrilling to see a car chase properly shot.
I feel a need to compare it to The Way of The Gun [for the less mainstream movie friends]. And it has some similarities (like: the dirty bar fight. that one wimpy red headed actor guy. some sharp snappy insults. car walking. high powered sniper rifles. dangerous old men. and on and on….). But this felt way more like a mainstream hollywood film. Kind of makes me pine for the weird imbalance of The Way of the Gun. That movie just felt more personal and shot-on-a-shoestring and weird and unfinished. this felt more like the second album from a wild genius musician, which is over produced and over polished until it can be sold to top40 radio. kind of makes me sad. but little bits of genius still peek through all over the place. So if you weren’t already a fan, this seemingly-safe-and-simple action movie will probably knock you on your ass several times.
anywho. just got out of the movie. still chewing it over. just wanted to share a hearty 4 thumbs up! Booyah!
(I just wish they could have cast Lee Marvin in the main role. … Who is the modern Lee Marvin? … All I can think of is Danny Glover. huh.)
p.s. i randomly chose “4 out of 3 stars” to suggest that it wasn’t trying to be more than a small movie. a small movie that doesn’t need more than a 3 star scale. but if that was all it wanted to be, then it really more than delivered.