Jack Reacher on 4K Still Exciting, Still Puzzling

When a former soldier is set up for a heinous crime so well that even he thinks he committed it, the district attorney (RICHARD JENKINS) is assured he has an open-and-shut death penalty case. But when the case makes national news, it comes to the attention of Jack Reacher (TOM CRUISE), an off-the-grid veteran who makes his way across the country to see that justice is done -- and the man is buried. Reacher knew the man in the service, and knows he got away with a horrific crime there.

So it's something of a mystery that the accused killer would ask for Reacher in the first place. Alas, that's the elephant in the room that nobody asks about -- sort of like, if Charles Foster Kane died alone, then who heard him utter the word "Rosebud?" But I digress...

Cruise is in his element as Reacher, in a sort of mashup of the best of Ethan Hunt and Maverick. It makes for great sexual tension between his character and the defense attorney (ROSAMUND PIKE), who is also the D.A.'s rebellious daughter trying to make a point. The villains are ruthless but their overall goal ill-defined, and their leader (WERNER HERZOG) is scary but lacking connective tissue between his primal motivators and the crime being committed.

But that's too much thinking. What you really watch JACK REACHER for is the way he goes through life with his DGAF attitude and Sherlock Holmes-like analytical skills. Well, that and his fists of fury and flouting of the law in the name of expedient justice.

JACK REACHER isn't the kind of film you're supposed to analyze -- it's the kind of film you're supposed to experience. Gunfights, car chases, heroes and villains -- all delivered with a dose of high octane action and adventure that has you chomping popcorn with your eyes glued to the screen. And in that crucial aspect, JACK REACHER succeeds and succeeds abundantly!