- New blog post: News for week ending 2012-12-07 (open thread) http://t.co/XnPCVr5I 2012-12-09
- New blog post: Reviews: The Con Man and Killer’s Choice by Ed McBain http://t.co/QUq2sUky 2012-12-09
- New blog post: Non-Westlake Scores: John D. MacDonald’s The Deep Blue Goodbye and Nightmare in Pink http://t.co/h6hY38wR 2012-12-13
- An observation of Donald Westlake's eternal cleverness on a book I have not yet read (Smoke): http://t.co/61Syp4th 2012-12-13
- Obligatory. I'm not a fan of any of the options. http://t.co/jP69om56 2012-12-13
- Parker movie TV spot: http://t.co/fLOo6M8z 2012-12-13
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News for week ending 2012-12-14 (open thread) |
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I’ll be catching the Reacher flick early next week, maybe on Christmas Day, with my father. My father didn’t really know who the Reacher character was before seeing the trailer on TV, but after I explained the physical discrepancy between Reacher and Cruise, he was totally dismissive of it. Said it was stupid to think Cruise couldn’t do a great job as Reacher just because he’s 5’7″, and some of the toughest guys he ever knew were well under six feet tall.
Made me take pause and rethink. So I’ll be heading into the theater with an open mind.
With Statham as Parker, DiCaprio as McGee, etc., I think we all get kind of finicky about physical discrepencies between fictional characters we love and the actors hired to portray them. The biggest requirement is the ability to convey the essential qualities of the character, and so far many reviewers say Cruise managed to nail the reacher character.
We’ll see.
I don’t think actor have to look a lot like the characters they play. Humphrey Bogart doesn’t look anything like Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe. (There’s an interesting bit of dialogue in The Big Sleep where a character comments on Marlowe being tall, it’s taken from the novel, but Bogart was well below average.)
That said I never really like Cruise.
Actually, I and my Dad cleared some time and saw Reacher today. Cruise was mediocre in the role. The only scenes that really strained credulity were the fight scenes, which seemed oddly choreographed. But Cruise was definitely not the worst thing about the film.
The acting was across the board lame, as if everyone was mailing in their performance. The best performance was undoubetdly the villain played by famed director Werner Herzog. He was genuinely creepy. But the other bad guys seemed like incompetent dolts.
The script was pretty chock-full of cliches. There were some plot holes that bugged me, as well as some inconsistent behavior. One scene, where Reacher strongly suspects the guy blamed for some horrific sniper attacks has been set up, and that the person responsible may be connected to the range where the patsy has been practicing, is particularly hard to believe.
He meets owner of the shooting range, and automatically knows the dude, played by Robert Duvall, is withholding info. Duvall tells Reacher he’ll only answer his questions if he agrees to show his stuff with a rifle.
Reacher agrees and walks out into a barren range to hoist up the target. He turns suspiciously around to see Duvall playing around with his high-powered rifle. DUH. This super-investigator who has a mind like a steel trap just blithely walks in front of a man he suspects of foul play who’s holding a rifle?
The story ends rather lamely, with a brief showdown with the film’s resident Mr. Joshua and Reacher going mano a mano in the rain, just like Lethal Weapon’s iconic ending. Except Gibson and Busey’s fight looked more realistic and ten times more entertaining.
I’m by no means a Reacher fan. I tried a book and couldn’t even finish it. But I imagine the discerning Lee Child fan will be disappointed.
My Dad, however, liked it.
Comic Book Resources has review
http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2012/12/21/review-jack-reacher
I’m not sure why it was reviewed at CBR since it’s not a comic book. I understand a review of the Parker film, since there’s the Darwyn Cooke adaptions of the books.
I’ve read only two Reacher books. One of the books was the one where Reacher was hired by the Secret Service to protect the President. Reacher calls in an old friend to check security. She meets the target and states she could have killed him by ramming the nose bone into the brain or snapping his neck “like a twig.” The human neck does not snap as easy as a twig. You have to really strong to break a person’s neck. Most men couldn’t do it. The number of women who are stroung enough could probably can be counted on one hand. I bought it when Parker broke the guy’s neck in Firebreak, because Parker is an extremely strong man, but this was to much.
I suppose it’s theoretically possible to kill someone by ramming nose bone in the brain. Thing is very little of the nose is actual bone. Scopes (or some such site) recorded only one incident of death from such a blow. That was only because the guy didn’t go to the hospital and infection set in to his brain.
The ramming the nose bones into the brain is a much used device. I remember hearing it described by George C. Scott, when he played John Rainbird in Firestarter.
The Reacher novels are somewhat well written, I mean Child is a decent writer, but the Reacher character is a bit much to swallow. Child stated he was inspired by John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee, but anyone who has read the McGee novels know Travis was not the toughest guy in the world. Twice in the series he was beaten into unconciousness while holding a firearm on his adversary. Once after he shot his adversary! McGee was tough, and able, but well within the scope of human possibility. I read somewhere there’s a Reacher book where he actually deflects a bullet with his pectoral muscles!
Yeah the ramming the nose bones in the brain comes up a lot, but it’s one of those things that just irk me. Why I’m bothered by it, and not say sound in the vacuum of space in Star Wars which is flat out impossible, I don’t know.
There was good writing in the Reacher novels, but it makes some of the faults of the books more noticable. I’m more tolerant of Doc Savage’s omnicompetance, but that’s because the novels don’t pretend to be anything more than pulp. Also Savage has an actual in story explanation for being so competant. He was raised in a scientific program to be that way, Jack Reacher just is that way.
Agreed. The series would have been much better if Child allowed Reacher to be more realistic and explored his flaws more closely. One of the most realistic and humble moments in any crime fiction story is in A Tan and Sandy Silence when McGee gets taken by surprise and is essentially manhandled by the villian. He escapes, but takes a while to get his confidence back, and is even scared to confront the villian for a while. His ruminations on masculinity are profound.
Reacher is just the typical tough guy. He can kick anyone’s ass, outhink any villain, knows what is right and what is wrong with total clarity, with no ambivalence or shades of gray. In other words, nowhere near what reality is for must intelligent, observant human beings.
Child has some good points as a writer, but I’ve always said the first thing about a writer I search for is their ability to create characters I find fascinating and I want to revisit again and again. And Reacher doesn’t cut it.
Looks like the film is not doing that well, box office wise. It was a mediocre film, at best, and I doubt if there’ll be a sequel. Maybe in a few years someone will make another attempt, without Cruise, possibly a HBO or Showtime series. I don’t hate Cruise like so many of the Reacher fans; I actually think he was acceptable in the role, except for the fight scenes. They just seemed too choreographed. The supporting cast was sub-par. Then again, the script they were given was hardly rich or multi-layered. Herzog, who brought a real nastiness to his character “The Prisoner”, stood out for me. Herzog would make a great Bond villain.
The usually great Duvall essentially played the same gruff old coot he’s been making a career out of for the last 15 year or so years.
All in all a typical Hollwood film lacking depth or complexity. A great director can only do so much with a weak script.
I don’t know if it will work out (I’m on the road so lots of things are up in the air), but I’m going to try to see Jack Reacher tomorrow after the family activities are over. If I don’t have time to write a full review, I’ll at least come back to this thread and post a few thoughts.
Matthew: In regards to Reacher versus Doc Savage, they establish who Doc Savage is in the first book or two, so that they can just get on with the stories. With Reacher, Child gradually fills in backstory over the course of the books, explaining the background, experience, and training that make Reacher Reacher.
I haven’t read enough of the books to know if he does a good job of this, but he doesn’t just throw a superman out there and leave it at that. Although if you’ve only read a couple you can certainly get that impression.
Be interested to read your comments after seeing the film, Trent. You obviously like the books and character much more than I, so it’s entirely possible you will have a more favorable reaction than I did.