“Jack Reacher” a bit of a stretch for actor Tom Cruise
Cynical observers feel that 5-foot-9 Tom Cruise must make quite a stretch to play a 6-foot-5 enforcer in the awaited two-fisted tale “Jack Reacher.”
Arriving Dec. 21, the PG-13 picture is based on Lee Child’s successful book series about an off-the-grid ex-military cop who uses vigilante tactics to punish the guilty. It’s based on “One Shot,” the ninth title in the series, which now has a total of 17 installments, and has been re-titled “Jack Reacher.”
Set in Indiana but shot in Pittsburgh, the film features old-school action in which justice, or at least street justice, triumphs.
Despite any size difference, Cruise related to the fists-of-fury Reacher and believes his fans will turn out as they did for his “Mission: Impossible” franchise.
“Jack Reacher is pure wish fulfillment,” Cruise told the British entertainment magazine Empire, “and I think that is why people so respond to him.
“He has a huge brain and amazing physical talents, but it goes deeper than that. I think that what’s most attractive is his unwillingness to abide by the rules everyone else has to live by.
“He’s a slave to nothing and no one.”
Talented filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie, a Princeton, N.J., native who wrote “The Usual Suspects” and directed “Way of the Gun,” will be working with Cruise for a long stretch. He’s in discussions to direct the next “Mission: Impossible” installment and is writing a “Top Gun” sequel for Cruise.