“Jack Reacher” Reaches with “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em” Arresting Action

Community, Opinion

“Jack Reacher,” with Tom Cruise starring as the title character, is an action film about an Army cop investigating a seemingly senseless shooting and the alleged perpetrator. “Reacher” reached deep into my soul and touched me deeply. Cruise cruises through his performance as the charismatic, loner, rule breaker, who just kicks donkey and takes names through out the movie.Reacher is a retired Army investigator who is personally requested by the alleged shooter. Of course the shooter is being framed and it’s up to Reacher to figure this out. No SPOILER ALERT: because the movie opens up with the shooting and the audience can clearly see that the shooter is the not the man arrested.

Cruise comes cruising in, via the public bus, the minute the DA and lead investigator are exasperated from a fruitless search for Reacher. Side not, the DA’s daughter just so happens to be representing the accused gunman.

Reacher is the consummate “bad donkey” there’s just not other way to describe him. Numerous people come from a confrontation with him in much worse shape than before the encounter, yet nobody seems to learn his lesson. I call them “Wyatt Earp Moments,” similar to but not synonymous with “(Foolish) Moments” made famous by “Granddad,” “Riley” and “Huey” Freeman on “The Boondocks.”

Allow me to explain, “Wyatt Earp Moments.” For most American men between the ages of 30-45 “Tombstone” starring Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp and Val Kilmer as Georgia’s own, Doc Holiday, is THE western cult classic. It just is, if you’ve seen it you know, if you haven’t seen it, why do you hate America?

When my dad saw “Tombstone” for the first time, we came to the “Easy Kid” scene. For those who don’t know, a young man bumps into to Earp, and the following exchange takes place:

“Easy Kid”

“I aint easy, and I aint your kid. I’ll fight you right now.”

The young man then promptly pulls his vest back to reveal his side arm. Earp responds by grabbing the young man’s side arm and knocking him out with his own weapon. At this my dad asked a most significant question.

“Don’t they know he’s Wyatt Earp?”

Hence the “Wyatt Earp Moment” was born, in short, it’s when one is watching a movie/TV show and someone challenges the character that is known for being a “bad donkey.” Why would you do that? It’s obvious this guy is not one that takes kindly to be harassed, yet people constantly harass him and they always end up hurt or dead.

That’s Reacher in a nutshell. The entire movie I’m just watching and shaking my head, thinking, “didn’t you just see the last guy get his (donkey) whooped? Now here you go.”

SPOILER ALERT: Now I have to admit “Reacher” “had me at hello,” so to speak. On a previous nerd night we saw a trailer for “Reacher” that showed Cruise in a high speed chase with the police, which ends with Cruise calmly stepping out of the car and onto the bus stop while the car continues to roll by. The people at the bus stop promptly step in front of Cruise and one guy hands him a hat. HIGHLARIOUS, I knew at that moment I had to see “Jack Reacher.”

While watching it in the theater, it was interesting to see/hear the audience’s reaction, because that scene was not in any of the TV commercials so most people had no idea that was about to happen. The audience seemed to enjoy it as much as I did the first time around.

Speaking of the audience I must say that while I normally don’t encourage loud outbursts in the theater; however, one gentleman’s boisterous description as a character “got Pacquiaoed” may have been the most apropos outburst ever.

I’m strongly considering replacing Smokey’s most famous description of Red getting knocked out by Debo with “You got Pacquiaoed” as the go to for those worldstar situations where someone gets dropped like Tears Tebow on the depth chart.

In short, reach for “Jack Reacher,” it definitely does not overreach with too much plot and story; just enough to keep the movie going in between fight scenes. Robert Duvall has a small part as a retired sharp shooting Marine that is just icing on the cake, and the chemistry between Reacher and the defense lawyer is palatable.

SPOLER ALERT: Reacher’s reaching for the keys, (you’ll know when you see it) is one of the funniest, most awkward, don’t be so stuck on yourself moments I’ve ever seen. Also Rene from “True Blood’s” last meal is truly finger food.

Back to Top