Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher?

Matt Gottshalk

Matt Gottshalk

Resident Preditor
Are you fracking kidding me?


A 5'7" 175lb dude playing a character that, by Lee Child's description is a 6'5" 250lb mountain of a man?

This looks craptacular.
 
What a character mismatch. As a avid reader of Lee Child's books I can say with authority that Tom Cruise ain't no Jack Reacher. Now Dwayne Johnson or Ray Stevenson (Rome and The Punisher) are about the right age, build and demeanor. A major facet of the Jack Reacher character is that he is big and intimidating which kept him out of trouble sometimes and got him into trouble other times.
 
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Hey, you never know, they turned 6' 1" John Rhys Davies into a 4' tall dwarf... and they turned 6' 1" Robbie Coltrane into 8' 6", 500-lb Hagrid, so ...

meh, I got nothin'.
 
mcgeedigital said:
Are you fracking kidding me?


A 5'7" 175lb dude playing a character that, by Lee Child's description is a 6'5" 250lb mountain of a man?

This looks craptacular.
Click to expand...

Until this movie started being mentioned in various fora and the 'fans' raving about Miss Match and Tom Cruise... I would have 1) never known about the movie, 2) never known about any novel from which the movie had been adapted...

So, the point being... if the general audience is about as 'ignorant' of Lee Child, the Novel, the Character as I am... so what... another action vehicle for Cruise.

I'll watch it because I happen to like most of his action movies...

I don't come away from the theater with some great soul liberating epiphany... but then what 'action' film has that effect anyway...
 
I didn't read the novels, and so I don't really care about the mismatch, but saw the trailer for this a few days ago and honestly this looks pretty uninteresting.

-JMT
 
One of the major characteristics of Jack Reacher is his strength and physical stature. It is written into how other characters react to him time as well as how he handles himself in difficult situations. This guy walks into a room and commands attention. Casting Tom Cruise in this role is as silly as casting him as Conan.

If they want to rename the Jack Reacher character and distance themselves from the books, then that's fine by me. But building publicity for the movie based on Lee Child's book and characters is going to keep book fans away from this movie. Now granted there might not be many of us.
 
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Barry_Green said:
Hey, you never know, they turned 6' 1" John Rhys Davies into a 4' tall dwarf... and they turned 6' 1" Robbie Coltrane into 8' 6", 500-lb Hagrid, so ...

meh, I got nothin'.
Click to expand...

But what are the first three things you think of when you see tom cruise?:

1. the face of scientology
2. he likes to jump on couches
3. he doubles the applebox budget of any film he is in :)
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
Until this movie started being mentioned in various fora and the 'fans' raving about Miss Match and Tom Cruise... I would have 1) never known about the movie, 2) never known about any novel from which the movie had been adapted...

So, the point being... if the general audience is about as 'ignorant' of Lee Child, the Novel, the Character as I am... so what... another action vehicle for Cruise.

I'll watch it because I happen to like most of his action movies...

I don't come away from the theater with some great soul liberating epiphany... but then what 'action' film has that effect anyway...
Click to expand...

Same here.


...

Yep.

Tom Cruise, like Bruce Willis, you know your getting a big budget well done film for your money.
 
I hadn't heard of Jack Reacher until this thread either, but I will offer a different viewpoint...

While the general public might not know about the physical characteristics of the original character, if that was a major part of how he got things done and commanded presence...well, that doesn't translate from this trailer. Tom Cruise looks FAR from bad ass in this...in fact he looks kind of wimpy. That torso/ab shot? C'mon...hit any beach and you'll see a better body than that. You need size/mass, dominance to make it effective from the little I wiki'd. The clip where the guys surrounded him and he took them out? Eh...this looks like a giant waste of money. Doesn't interest me in the least. If he was a massive person and the trailer was cut better, I probably would have checked it out.

Kegan
 
You have got to read the books. If you don't have time then check them out on CD from the library and listen to them while traveling. Very well written and one "bad-ass" character.
 
I would really recommend reading the books. If you don't have time then check them out on CD from the library and listen to them while traveling. Very well written and one "bad-ass" character. I think it is a crap-shoot whether books translate well into movies. I have read lots of entertaining book series such as "John Carter from Mars" and "Hunger Games" that disappointed me on the big screen.
 
Movie looks lame...and from the trailer...too much like The Punisher for me to bother. Even the shot of him in the classic car skidding across frame is straight out of Punisher. Ah well.
 
I'm a Tom Cruise fan and think he's one of the most magnetic actors out there, but this does seem a bit strange. There are actors out there who could have fit the physique of the character better, and even though most of them aren't as talented as Cruise, considering that the guys size is important to his character I would say it would be worth it. Hell, make Reacher black and cast Idris Elba. He's an amazing actor AND very intimidating (if you doubt this, watch 'Luther')
 
Heck yea. Idris Elba would be great. One of the interesting things about the Jack Reacher character is that he can put a guy down that in his mind really deserves it and have absolutely no remorse. In other instances a broken nose or kneecap is adequate. He tends to reason situations as either black or white. But as a military cop, earlier in his life, he has to stay within the bounds of acceptable military behavior. Ironically he is the one that is tasked by his superiors with working in the grey areas of the law beyond rank and privilege. Lee Childs "Reacher" books have all the elements to make great action movies in the right hands.
 
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mcgeedigital said:
This looks craptacular.
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As a Lee Child fan who has read all the books, it pains me to say it does indeed look bad. But not because of Cruise. That script looks bad just from the little we see in the trailer.

Reacher is a guy of few words. And a guy who has been forced to learn street fighting since he was like four, and he's highly skilled at many-on-one fighting. That he's still alive means that he's learned there's absolutely no such thing as a fair fight, to land the first punch if possible, and make each punch absolutely devastating. He seldom starts fights, but if he has to fight his goal is to finish it as quickly as possible. So he's not a guy who is *ever* going to say "remember, you wanted this". Reacher would just hit ya. Very, very hard.

A bad script ain't Cruise's fault.

But it's hard to believe they couldn't have found someone a little closer to the Reacher size and look to play this part. Just sayin'.
 
Bruce, good description of the character. One other thing is he plans his fight moves in advance based on his vast experience. It is an analysis process that is cold and calculating. Rarely does he get it wrong or taken by surprise.
 
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