Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 62% (Critics) / 72% (Audience)
Directed By: Christopher McQuarrie
Written By: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins and Robert Duvall
Studio: Paramount Pictures

Synopsis: Six shots. Five dead. One heartland city thrown into a state of terror. But within hours the cops have it solved: a slam-dunk case. Except for one thing. The accused man says: You got the wrong guy. Then he says: Get Reacher for me. And sure enough, ex-military investigator Jack Reacher is coming. He knows this shooter-a trained military sniper who never should have missed a shot. Reacher is certain something is not right-and soon the slam-dunk case explodes. Now Reacher is teamed with a beautiful young defense lawyer, moving closer to the unseen enemy who is pulling the strings. Reacher knows that no two opponents are created equal. This one has come to the heartland from his own kind of hell. And Reacher knows that the only way to take him down is to match his ruthlessness and cunning-and then beat him shot for shot. (Source)

The Good:
I like Tom Cruise…and I am not afraid to admit. The dude is a damn good actor and can very capably straddle the line between “serious” acting and the action genre. I typed all that just because Cruise owns every scene of this movie that he is in especially the physical stuff.
I also enjoyed the crusty and grizzled performance by acting legend Robert Duvall in a small but pivotal role.

The Bad:
As much as I enjoyed Cruise’s performance I have to admit that when there was no fisticuffs, shooting or car chases going on this movie was pretty blah. the central mystery that was supposed to drive the film barely held my attention and just about 20 to 30 minutes into the movie I stopped caring about whether the truth would ever be found and just wanted Jack Reacher to start hitting people.

The Ugly
Rosamund Pike is a classically beautiful woman but Jebus was she dull as all hell. She gave the most reserved and listless performance of any actress I have seen in quite a while. The director could have gotten away with sticking a department store mannequin in all of her scenes and I don’t think I would have noticed anything being out of place.

Final Verdict: An overlong, over serious actioner that only comes alive when Tom Cruise is doing fun stuff like beating up hooligans and leading the police on a merry car chase. Everything else is utterly forgettable.

Grade: C+