Exclusive: I like the Jack Reacher movies

So, the Jack Reacher books are some of the bestselling books that have ever been written. I mean, millions and millions of copies have been sold over the past about 25 years. Your dad probably loves them. I I mean, you can see them being sold at like the airport and stuff and so some people just kind of dismiss them because of that, but I don't know. I from the books I've read in the series, I really like them. The premise is simple. There's a homeless drifter named Jack Reeer who travels America. And along the way, he solves crime and fights baddies. And like, yeah, that sounds silly, and in many ways it is. It is self-aware, but eh, they're still really fun, good books. Like, they're mostly fun because they're good mysteries. They're well structured mysteries, and they also have enjoyable action and some humor mixed in there. Cuz like I said, they are self-aware. The author understands that yes, this premise is kind of silly. You shouldn't take it too too seriously, but at the end of the day, Jack Reacher is still solving mysteries, and he is still fighting some truly despicable bad guys. As I said, I like the books that I've read. I haven't read all of them, but the couple I've read have been very good, and I love the Amazon TV show. Like if if you want to exper experience Jack Reacher then I would recommend checking out the Amazon show because in my opinion that's the best of this. Now it took me a while to watch the movies however even after loving the show and liking the books and I watched them recently and they're good. Yeah, I enjoyed them. They're good enjoyable movies but at the same time I can see why they never really took off. You know, I feel like the movies are a step down from both the show and the books that they're adapted from. I think I can summarize the reasons why pretty easily. It's mostly due to the characters being less developed than they are in the books. And it also doesn't nail the gritty but also very silly tone of the books and the show. Like Jack Reacher himself is played by Tom Cruz. And no hate for Tom Cruz as an actor. I think he's a very good actor, but he doesn't work for a couple of reasons. And I'm I'm not just going to say he doesn't work because he's short. Like, okay, obviously Jack Reacher is supposed to be a giant dude and Tom Cruz is not, but that's not really the problem. The problem is that people are scared of Reacher when they see him because like he's a big hulking mass of meat and they think, "Wow, this guy could really, really hurt me." Uh, but they act the same way towards Tom Cruz even though he's a regularsized dude in the movie. Or well, okay, they they use camera tricks to make him look like a regular sized dude in the movie. And I think part of the reason that you can sort of look past that sometimes is that Tom Cruz is really intense. Like that that's what makes him work as an actor is that in pretty much every role he's ever been in, he's been really intense. And so he just looks at characters and you can tell he's like drilling holes through their head and looking directly at their soul like he's trying to rip it out and eat it. You know, that's that's how I would describe Tom Cruz in these movies, if that makes any level of sense. But uh the thing is because he's so intense, he's also less friendly than Reacher is. And he's also, weirdly, he's less crazy and less psychotic than Reacher is in the books because in the books, Reacher is a straightup psychopath. And the books make no excuses for that. Like, he he does some heinous things, but he does them to people who deserve it mostly. And he also just doesn't think twice about killing or otherwise hurting people. And I I don't know like Reacher in the movies, Tom Cruz Reacher, he has that intensity, so it feels like he's on the verge of violence at any moment, but at the same time, we don't really see him be as psychotic as he is in the other uh versions of this story because the movies are, you know, PG-13 and they're trying to keep it that way. So, in the end, he winds up just feeling like a regular action hero. So, they only made two movies. One's just called Jack Reacher from 2012 and the other one is Jack Reacher Never Go Back from 2016. And I'll just go over them one at a time. Again, I think they're both enjoyable, but I think the first movie is several bits better than the second one. The first movie is better than Never Go Back >> on the ground. >> That's a pretty impressive response time, fellas. >> Do it. >> So, the first movie, just called Jack Reacher, is based on the book OneShot, which is right in the middle of the Jack Reacher series. Now, that might sound like a bad idea at first. But the thing about the Jack Reacher books, and a lot of thrillers like them, is that there isn't an overarching plot really. So, you can just pick up any book anywhere in the series at any time and read it, and you'll have a nice self-contained little adventure. And that works pretty well in this case. that I don't know if that would work well in every case, but I think it works well in this one because if you read the first book in the Jack Reacher series, Killing Floor, that is meant to be kind of sort of an origin story, like it was also adapted into season one of the TV show. And so, it's basically Reacher when he first started doing his homeless drifter thing and then he first gets wrapped up in this bigger adventure. And I I think the best way to describe it is that it's an origin story because it shows how Reacher truly got cut off from the rest of the world. Because at the beginning, the only family he has left is his brother. And he finds out very close to the beginning that his brother has been murdered. And so he gets sucked in by trying to solve that murder and figure out what happened. And then he gets pulled into a bigger conspiracy. In the movie, based on one shot, uh, someone goes on a killing spree in the middle of Pittsburgh, kills several innocent people, and while he's being interrogated by the police, he just writes a note saying, "Get Jack Reacher." Because it's somebody that knew Jack Reacher from back when they were in the army together. And Reacher is just chilling on a beach in Florida when he sees his name brought up on the news. So, he goes, "Okay, I'll go check that out." And he goes off and investigates it and again gets embroiled in a bigger conspiracy. That's that's basically how every Jack Reacher story begins. Like he he's just chilling, having fun, and then something happens and then that escalates and snowballs into something much much bigger. But like I was saying, this isn't an origin story. It just sort of throws you into the middle of things, but it still works as an introduction to Reacher and to his character because after the guy, his name is James Bar, uh asks for Reacher, we see the police trying to look for him and they go, "Wow, this guy's really difficult to find." And then he just sort of pops up there. And they also, you know, like what they do in action movies where they have a monologue about how this guy's really badass and cool and they list off a bunch of accomplishments that he has. Like, you know, it works well as an intro to Reacher. Like, not just what he's done, but the sort of person he is and the way he acts. Now, everybody assumes that Bar would ask for Reacher because he thinks Reacher is going to get him out of trouble, but Reacher is actually there to do the exact opposite. He's there to bury him, as he puts it, because he knew Bar back when they were in the army together, Bar actually murdered several people and Reacher tried to investigate him and get him sent in to prison for it, but it wound up being covered up because, well, to put it bluntly, bar that the people he murdered were rapists. Like they they were working for the American military and they raped a bunch of women in Iraq. So, they were just like, "H, you know what? let's not have this get out. And they just kind of again swept it under the rug and let Bar get away with it. And that's really strange to me because like Reacher hates this guy because he's a violent murderous murderous vigilante, but Reacher is also a violent murderous vigilante. Like even just in this movie, he murders people. Like like without getting into too much spoilers, like he breaks the law a lot. And again, he usually only kills people that really deserve it, that are truly heinous. So, you're not going to think too hard about it. But also, that's what it is legally speaking. So, it's not like he has this ironclad need to always follow the rules and follow the law in all situations. And again, if the situation was a bit different, Reacher would happily have killed all those rapists or happily gotten them sent to prison. So, I'm just not sure why Reacher is upset with Bar for killing those guys. Maybe it's explained better in the book. I haven't read it yet, but I don't know that that's just a weird thing that sticks out to me about this movie. One thing that's kind of interesting is that Reacher gets hyped up a lot in the opening, but we don't really see him do anything other than investigate until the 34minute mark. See, at the 34 minute mark, the bad guys send some dudes to jump Reacher and just beat him up really badly. And Reacher fights several of them and defeats them without any real trouble cuz Reacher can do that. He He's just that awesome. >> So, there's no real action in the movie until the 34minute mark. And that is that's a ballsy move. Now, there's a lot more action after that, but it is ballsy to keep it uh I don't know, keep us on the edge of our seats. Keep keep edging us, I guess. Should I say that? I don't know. It's a ballsy move to keep it contained for that long and then it actually happens. You know, like normally action movies, they have to start off with a bang or something. So, it is different that they did it that way. I'm not going to say it's necessarily better or worse, but it is different. And I also just want to take a moment to say that the fights and the action are all great. Like Reacher doesn't just wreck dudes, he wrecks them with purpose. You know, it'd be very easy to write and choreograph that scene in such a way where it's just, okay, Reacher punches this guy. He runs over here and punches this other guy. He flips over and hits him with a chair or something. You know, it'd be very easy to do that. But Reacher goes into it with a plan and he's clearly not just fighting, he's being smart about it. Like there's one guy who he gets into a position where he's got him and he the other guy can't really do anything to him and then he looks over at his friends and punches this guy in the balls just to intimidate the guy's friends and get him to walk away really. And that's very entertaining, but it's also very in line with the sort of person Jack Reeer is. He's uh yeah, he's big and tough and can fight his way out of situations, but if he can think his way out or talk his way out, then he's going to do that. And again, just him punching that dude in the balls and then looking over to the crowd for approval is just a very funny moment. In fact, there are a couple of those in the movies that got an actual laugh out of me. you know, the the books, the movies, the show, they all have a very good sense of humor about themselves, and they can acknowledge that some of this is pretty silly. And that's one thing that makes them very enjoyable. Like in the first movie, there's also a scene where Reacher is talking to someone and says, "Uh, take me to the auto parts store." The first auto parts store that comes to mind. And then she drives him over there and we see it's just called default auto parts. Like that's that's funny. or a scene where some dudes try to ambush Reacher and they hit him in the back of the head with a baseball bat, but the bat catches on a door frame so he doesn't take the full force of the blow. And then there's two dudes in a very small room who are both trying to attack him, but they keep getting in each other's way. [Music] >> Or a moment in the second movie where they steal the keys to someone's car and they're looking for the car and they they're like, "Well, it's a black sedan." And then it zooms out and you can see the entire parking lot is filled with black sedans. You know, just little moments like that. They they always got a laugh out of me. That's what I mean when I say that the Jack Reacher stories are gritty, but they're also very silly. Like, they have a sense of humor. They have moments like that, but at the same time, they don't shy away from the violence, and they don't shy away from how horrible some of these situations are and just how heinous some of the villains are. The whole process of Reacher investigating this mass shooting and uh uncovering the big conspiracy that's at the heart of it is great, but I did feel the reveal of what's going on was pretty dull. You know, ultimately it's just some evil businessman men are doing evil businessman things and it's just it's not not really that exciting. But at the same time, the reveal of why the massacre was done was pretty good. And the villains are very much a mixed bag here. Like they're very very smart and it's great to watch them be capable and watch them do evil stuff while also covering up their tracks and everything. Like they're very very smart. At the same time they are ridiculous. Like I I'm not even gonna bother looking up the name of the main villain, but he has one eye and a ridiculous over-the-top foreign accent and he has a couple of fingers that are missing because he spent years in a Siberian goolog and he bit off his own fingers to prevent the frostbite from going gangrous. Like he he's just he's just way too over the top. Even back in the 80s, that sort of villain would have been seen as just being stupid. They would have said, "Hey, tone tone it down just a little bit." and he also doesn't really do anything. He's just the guy who's in charge and throughout the movie, his minions are the ones doing all the bad stuff. Now, his main minion is played by Jai Courtourtney and he's better, but there's not that much to him, you know, like at least he actually goes out and does stuff like he actually fights and kills people and stuff and he's unflinchingly loyal to his boss for some reason. I I don't know. There's just there's not much to him. He doesn't have a lot of personality. He doesn't have any interesting motivations or backstory or anything. He's just he's there. But I guess Jai Courtourtney gives a okay performance. So he's there. And then you look at Jack Reacher's allies who are also all right. You know, we we have Roseman Pike. She's a lawyer who's committed to justice and wants to help him get to the bottom of all this and she she's fine. Obviously Roseman Pike gives a good performance, but they don't give her that much to work with. There's the owner of the gun range who has a little bit more personality. Like you can see him and Reacher uh bond a little bit because they're both army vets and you know that's kind of cool but yeah he doesn't have that much to him. He's just a guy who helps Reacher out and is kind of fun to watch. I I don't know. I just don't have that much to say. They don't have the presence that side characters usually have in the Jack Reacher books and the TV show, you know, and that's a problem because Jack Reacher, the stories tend to be very formulaic. Again, Jack Reacher wanders into a new town. There's some big event that happens. Usually someone gets killed in that event or multiple someone's get killed and then he somehow gets pulled into it and then he investigates and then he uncovers a bigger conspiracy and along the way he fights a bunch of bad guys and then at the end he blows the whole thing up, defeats all the bad guys and then wanders off again. So it's formulaic. What keeps it from getting stale is that the characters again have a lot of presence. Not just Reacher himself, but all the side characters. They have very well-defined personalities and sometimes they're a bit silly and larger larger than life, but you remember them. And also, the settings of the stories tend to be very different. The scenarios that they go through uh are different from one another, so they help stay fresh and it like that's what prevents it from getting stale. But overall, the Jack Reacher movie very enjoyable. I don't think it's really anything to write home about, but it's very, very enjoyable. I liked it. >> You're supposed to be watching him. >> What do you think? I've got eyes in the back of my head. How's it going? >> Then there is Jack Reacher Never Go Back, which is a step down from the first movie. I don't think it's bad. A lot of reviewers think it's bad, but personally, I just think it's a step down. It's still fun, enjoyable, but having watched it twice now, I'm going, "Yeah, no, I can see why the critics were kind of harsh on it." The mystery is worse than in the first movie. The setup for the mystery and for unraveling the conspiracy and everything is a lot less interesting. The action is not bad, but it's less engaging and it feels a little bit less cerebral. Like I feel we didn't really get a moment like in the first movie where Jack Reacher punches that dude in the balls to intimidate his friends. Like we didn't really get a moment. We're like, "Okay, yeah, this guy's very smart while he's fighting." And the characters are worse. The basic setup here is that Reacher is traveling to Virginia to meet someone that he somehow became friends with. uh her name is Major Turner and she's actually in charge of the old uh unit that Reacher used to be in charge of. But then she gets arrested for murder and he thinks, well, she's obviously innocent and then he gets swept up in it and the whole story unfolds from there. And story-wise, I don't have a lot to say. Like I said, the mystery is less engaging. There's again evil businessmen doing evil businessmen things, and it's just I don't know. The the mystery wasn't as engaging. It wasn't as interesting. And the whole time I just felt like, eh, like, yeah, I could see what was coming a mile away. Which might have been fine if, again, the characters were better, but they're just not. Like, we have Major Turner. She's just kind of Reacher's sidekick in this one. There's there's not much to her. Like, she's tough and angry at times and determined to clear her name, which is understandable, but there's not a lot to her. And again, just like Roseman Pike in the first movie, Kobe Smolders is given a good performance here. Like, she's clearly trying, but the script just does not give her that much to work with. >> Soldier, you know who I am. I need you to stand down. >> You've been relieved of command, man. >> Now, another side character here who I thought was a lot better was Samantha, who is introduced as possibly being Jack Reacher's daughter. And she's a lot better because she's like 15 years old. Uh but she's very very smart and resourceful and capable and she doesn't think twice about, you know, stealing or lying in order to protect herself because she's lived a hard life. Reacher clearly sees a lot of himself in this girl and the two of them connect really well and it it helps humanize him a bit because again, Reacher is a psychopath. So the moments where he gets humanized and where we see the person underneath his harder exterior is th those are good moments you know like again in the first book or the first season of the TV show when his brother is murdered we see under it and in this one when he's thinking that maybe he has a child and he hasn't been there for her for 15 years and he clearly feels ashamed and guilty because of that. That is also very good. There's a scene near the end of the movie where he's about to go off and continue wandering and drifting again and Sam asks him if he ever gets lonely and he just says sometimes. And that's actually one of the things that I like about Jack Reacher and what prevents it from feeling too silly is that it acknowledges that yeah, his life is lonely and he's not a very well adjusted person and that's kind of why he is a drifter. like he can't adjust to live in regular society, at least not for long periods of time. He's too volatile. He's not good at following rules and he just doesn't connect well with other people. Like that's why he became the person he is. And he likes his life of freedom. He likes not being tied down. But at the same time, it does get lonely. I also think that the opening of this movie is a great introduction to Reacher because just like the first one, it just sort of throws you into the middle of it, but it also kind of throws you into the end of whatever adventure Reacher was going on before cuz it starts off he's in a diner. He just beat a couple guys up. The police try to arrest him and then he says, "Actually, you guys are running a human trafficking operation." And then military police come and arrest the sheriff. And you can tell that he was going on some other adventure before this and he was also fighting bad guys before this. And like, yeah, that's how the Reacher books work. I think that is a great way to introduce us to the character in only a minute or two. And it's also just fun for us to imagine what he was getting up to before this. And we know that at the end of the movie, he's going to go off and he's going to get into more very similar adventures. And so, we get to imagine what sort of adventures he gets into after that. And I don't think they're going to make any more movies, at least not with Tom Cruz. So, I don't know. It's just like that that is the end of that character at the end of uh you know never go back like that's the end of this version of the character I should say and so I don't know h being able to use our imagination and fill in the blanks is a lot of fun. Now I think that Reacher and the other characters in this movie are a bit weaker than they were in the first one. However, I think the villains are a lot better because again the main villains in charge of everything. Not much to say about them. But the main threat that they actually face off against, like the enforcer for the villains, is a guy who's just called the hunter. And he's some sort of former special forces guy. Again, just like with Jai Courtourtney in the first movie, he doesn't have much to him. You know, he doesn't have that much personality. He doesn't have an interesting backstory or motivation for why he's doing what he's doing. Presumably, he just gets paid very well to be a hitman. But he works really well because he has much more screen presence than Jai Courtourtney did. You know, he has this way of seeming kind of friendly but also really creepy at the same time. And at the same time as both of those, he also seems like he could explode into violence at any moment. Like it just it works really well. So anytime he's on screen, you you feel his presence there and I really liked that. And on top of that, he is intimidating. He's an intimidating villain. He's one of the only people that can actually fight Reacher to a standstill by himself. Like the first scene where him and Reacher fight, he's winning and Reacher has to run away. >> Stay back. And as the movie goes on, they develop a bit of a rivalry and the hunter begins to hate Reacher on a personal level. So yeah, this guy doesn't have any complex motivations or anything, but he's more fun to watch than the villains in the first movie. I'll give him that. And yeah, I don't know. Never go back. I don't have a whole lot else to say about it. It's a very meh movie, but I still think it's worth a watch. Like if you watch the first one and enjoy it, then I would recommend checking out the second one because again that's that's the end of that version of the character. Like we're almost certainly never getting anything more than that. So I don't know, just enjoy it. Overall, if you want to get into Jack Reacher, I would recommend reading the books or watching the Amazon TV show because those are just both better than the movies. But the movies really aren't bad, guys. like they're they're enjoyable films. Obviously, Tom Cruz is a great actor and a great filmmaker. Whatever else you want to say about his involvement with the Church of Scientology and just I don't know. I I don't think I have a lot else to say. The Jack Reacher stories tend to be very simple, but that's part of what makes them fun. That's all. Thank you for watching this exclusive video. Goodbye. Ahoy. Thank you for watching this far. If you didn't watch this far, but you still wound up here somehow, then I still appreciate you. You're great. All these names you see here, these are my patrons. You can go over to Patreon and pay $1 a month or more if you feel like it. Get access to stuff like one exclusive video every month, early access to videos, things of that nature. 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