Tom Cruise IS Jack Reacher, screams the poster and new trailer for the Lee Child action adaptation. Is Paramount reaching, or is Cruise more and more believable as the bad-ass army cop who drives fast and punches bad guys in the balls as he investigates a suspicious multiple murder case?
This theatrical trailer for the Christopher McQuarrie-directed film (his first in the dozen years since Way of the Gun) wisely chooses not to linger on extended scenes of Cruise beating up dozens of bad guys — not the easiest stretch of the imagination, despite his ability to do the same when playing Mission: Impossible's Ethan Hunt. Sans ubercool gadgets and the metrosexual spy sheen of that franchise, Cruise has to work harder to pass for the brawling, cold-blooded ex-military loner of Child's novels.
Never mind that fans of the books are still grumbling that Cruise looks nothing like the ginormous 6'5" blond antihero. Jack Reacher is now a Tom Cruise Movie, so all it really needs to be a hit with the masses is a good story to string together scenes of Cruise angsting his way from fight to car chase and beyond. Right?
Jack Reacher's secret weapon, however? Werner Herzog as a bad guy. Now that's a brilliant stroke of casting that should make it well worth the price of admission.
Jack Reacher is in theaters December 21.