I just got back, absolutely loved it! Reacher is such a fantastic character, badass, cool, smart and dryly funny. Cruise just owns the screen, thankfully Rosamund Pike is also very good and spars well with Cruise's Reacher as defense attorney Helen Rodin, as the 2 unravel the mystery.
Ah yes mystery, I love action movies but I've missed the kind of thrillers with just a dollop of action that Eastwood and Ford would star in, Reacher is a return to this and the way he goes about solving the case is both involving and intriguing.
The action there is, is very well shot and very much stripped down, when Reacher fights he is efficient not spectacular. The car chase scene is glorious, as gwyn and DS mentioned the sound design is fantastic for it and the fact Cruise did all the real driving made it as exciting and visceral as the one from Bullit, you are right there with Reacher through every slide and smash.
Herzog as The Zec makes for a memorable villain; cold, brutal and merciless, he is only in two full scenes but he leaves the kind of mark many recent movie villains fall well short of, he's basically the best modern Bond villain.
Jai Courtney shows a lot of presence as The Zec's right hand assassin and gets the most out of his screen time, while Robert Duvall shows his class as an old military sniper who holds a key piece of evidence and helps Reacher out.
I have to give a special mention to the bar scene where the tragic Sandy tries to pick up Reacher as part of a set up, the dialogue both in the bar and outside is fantastic and embodies everything great about Reacher, his subsequent scene with Sandy showing his softer side.
Reacher's off the grid, nomadic lifestyle, observations, detective work and code of justice make him easy to root for and I'm looking forward to a sequel.
9/10
